Big Brother
by Tjin
Summary: After falling down the Rabbit hole Xander finds himself in a world like no other...
1. Down the Rabbit Hole

Xander screamed as he fell through the void, a Terakan had pointed at him in the final moments of the damn church fiasco and he had found himself falling. He wasn't quite sure if that had been centuries or seconds ago, but at the moment he was sure that it was far too long for his liking.

With a pulse of power, the final remnants of the hyena possession sacrificed itself, shifting the portal from the original location. While it hadn't quite known where this new portal would open up, it was unwilling to go quietly wherever the assassin wanted and with a pulse of green energy Alexander Harris disappeared.

*Scene Break*

Around the world the inhabitants turned towards the odd green star that gleamed in the gathering twilight for a moment. Many considered it an omen of good or bad of things to come. Some considered it a natural phenomenon created from excessive swamp gas in the upper atmosphere. Others wondered at the beauty and set out to eternally capture the moment in song, dance and/or paint, but most simply shrugged and turned back to their drinks.

One recent arrival simply screamed as he plummeted towards the earth from thirty five thousand feet. Had Alexander Harris intended to fall from such a height he might have enjoyed the view, he certainly would have brought such important pieces of equipment as an oxygen bottle or parachute along with him. After a few brief moments of screaming, he rapidly turned his focus to the frantic gasping for oxygen before passing out.

*Scene Break*

Waking up with a headache is a bad way to start the day. Waking up with a headache while still in freefall at fifteen thousand feet is actually worse. For a horrifying moment, Xander felt the panicked screams he had been using so skillfully earlier rise up within him before simply letting out a sigh. It wasn't any use and it would just make his journey to the next life that much more embarrassing, he may as well have some dignity in this last final ride.

Splaying out as much as possible, Xander fought the wind as it tried to spin him like a dervish while he tried to maintain the least aerodynamic shape he could. For a moment he sent a blessing out to Miss Grunding, who had actually taught him about aerodynamics and made a mental oath to pay more attention in school, if he miraculously lived through this. He would never comment that it would never do him any good in real life ever again. Of course he was hoping that his 'ever again' was longer than the next minute or so of plummeting doom before he met his end at the unflinching surface of the earth below. For a moment he almost wished he was falling towards Sunnydale so he could at least try to aim for Snyder's car before shrugging the thought off, it was both petty and below him.

He was shocked to discover that his humor was still in effect as the 'below him' comment had actually forced a slight snicker out of his so far silent descent.

Taking stock of the total situation Xander was somewhat amazed at the massive mountain range that was reaching up towards him before shifting slightly in a desperate bid to reach one of the heavier snow caps, thankfully his recent soldier possession had been jump certified and had been a bit paranoid about his chute not opening, he knew that several people had survived falls such as this and lived, he also knew that the odds were against him but due to a lack of alternatives was taking the Han Solo option concerning them.

As he neared his final moment, Xander was shocked to notice a half dozen humans moving about in the general location of his soon to be ballistic impact point. Cursing the universe for making his life even more complicated, Xander reoriented his feet towards the ground and assumed the five point impact position before whispering a prayer that he not hit someone. In the last moments, he could have sworn he felt a massive gust of wind rise up and slow him slightly before he impacted.

As his feet hit the snow he let his knees buckle as he rolled forward. Rolling through the impact completely, Xander felt several bones break and shatter under the force before he came to a surprised stop staring up at the slowly darkening sky. For a moment he wondered if he had actually died before the endorphin rush faded slightly and he came to the realization that death likely didn't hurt as much as this. Thankfully the people he had managed to miss were quickly gathering around and Xander blinked, he could accept the baldness as they seemed to be some sort of monks, but someone had played a bad prank on them all as they each had a blue arrow painted on the tops of their heads.

Thinking desperately for a moment, Xander tried to come up with something witty to say in response to falling out of a clear blue sky before chuckling through the pain "Watch that first step, it's a doozy," he ground out before thankfully passing out, again.

Around the unconscious male, the gathered Air Nomads stared between the recent arrival and Monk Gyatso who alone had managed to bend fast enough to slow the falling boy.

After a moment to center himself from the near panic at seeing the falling person, the Elder turned back to the gathered monks and frowned. "While introspection and careful thought is of great importance, I believe our young friend would be better served with medical treatment back at the temple," he commented simply and smirked as the gathered monks jumped and hurried to render aid to the young man.

Turning back to his charge, Gyatso smiled at the awestruck Aang. Avatar the boy may one day be, but he was still as easily impressed as the other students the Monk had taught. Of course, now he only had to keep the young Avatar from imitating this young man's actions and he could count this day successful.

*Scene Break*

Groaning as he woke back up to the as usual feeling of pain, Xander rubbed his eyes and he tried to focus enough to make sense of all the various pain signals. "Oh god, what hit me," he groaned and froze as he actually got a response.

"The earth. Or to be more specific I believe you hit it. Of course, between the two of you I believe you came out considerably worse than your opponent," a voice responded with the dry wit and humor he only managed to pick up due to many verbal sparring matches with Giles.

Jerking upright Xander felt his entire body scream in protest before the vertigo of such an action forced him back to the small cot as he held his head and willed the universe to stop spinning.

"I would suggest you not move, but I feel that advice is of less value than it was a moment ago," the voice said before a cool wet cloth was placed on his forehead, thankfully it seemed to help and Xander managed to open his eyes without the urge to vomit.

Taking in the commenter, Xander was surprised to see a man that seemed only slightly younger than mud smiling down at him with the same look of humor Giles got when he managed to pull one over on the Xand-man and was waiting for him to catch up. "You can say that again," Xander said before he groaned as the older man started to repeat his previous comment.

Finally chuckling, Xander took a moment to leverage himself up into a sitting position as he took stock of his injuries; a broken leg and at least one cracked rib, his toe was hurting more than the other breaks so that was likely damaged worse than the other breaks. Other than those and more bruises than he thought it was possible to have, it seemed he had gotten off lucky. Of course falling through a dimensional portal and surviving a thirty thousand foot drop had probably exhausted this lifetime's supply of luck entirely. Leaning against the cool stone wall, Xander took in his surroundings before giving up. "This might sound a bit silly, but I am guessing I'm not in Kansas anymore, can you tell me where I am?"

Shrugging the odd speech off, Gyatso nodded. "Indeed you are not, you are currently in the fifth room on the left hand side of the west corridor on the northwest tower in the southern air temple in the westernmost mountain range of the southeast Earth kingdom." Gyatso said and watched as the young man tensed again.

After a moment, Xander forced himself to relax, he could break down later if he needed. He had known as soon as he fell through the portal that it likely wasn't going to drop him off at the local seven-eleven, but the thought that he would be in a totally different world was… Honestly it scared him more than a little, he was mildly startled when a hand was gently set on his shoulder drawing his attention back to the old man.

"Rest now, time is what is needed for mind, body and spirit to heal," Gyatso said before straightening up and moving towards the exit. "I shall bring some food, water is in the canister by your head and a chamber pot is at the foot, I would recommend you not get the two confused." He explained before leaving Xander to his musings.

After a moment's thought, Xander finally turned back towards the door, "Umm… I didn't actually get his name," he muttered before shrugging. "Oh well, how many geezers with arrows painted on their heads can there be."

*Scene Break*

Climbing the mountain, Xander thought about the last year, he had been accepted into the temple and the vast majority of the monks had been very helpful in getting him settled. A few had been sticks in the mud, but thankfully Gyatso and Aang had pelted them with flying pies until they retreated in defeat. The Air bending had been cool and Xander had put a lot of effort into learning it, unfortunately the only air he had managed to work had been one rather unfortunate evening when he had cooked uncle Rory's special Bean and Cabbage surprise with Spicy Lentil curry. It had hit the temple like a plague, the moaning and cries of pain had echoed through the temple well into the night and many a young monk had been forcibly ejected from the temple for the day until the epidemic had passed. Xander had been issued a stern and binding order to never cook again under pain of being locked in a room with his victims.

Gyatso had actually slipped the recipe into a merchants wares on his route towards the fire nation. He had spent many days afterwards attempting to atone for such an atrocity, but seemed to fail as he would routinely snicker during his meditations at the thought of the terror such a recipe would cause in the innocent fire nation.

Aang had loved the entire episode and had spent several weeks trying to work a new type of air bending out of the event. Thankfully for everyone… well everywhere, he had finally gotten discouraged enough to stop, although Xander would still catch him creating air balls at times and then trying to sit on them. For a time he had considered talking to the boy, but eventually shrugged it off, so long as the kid didn't hurt himself, who was he to complain.

He had sort of adopted the constantly chipper kid as a surrogate brother. The eight year old was constantly getting into and out of more trouble than Willow, Jesse and himself had ever managed back home. For a brief moment he felt a pang of loss at the thought of home and his missing friends before taking a deep breath and letting it out, just as Monk Pasang had taught him. Centering himself, Xander continued on his journey. He couldn't air bend and he couldn't even learn the steps of the strange fighting dance thing the air nomads did, but he could get out of their way and try to 'find himself' as Gyatso had suggested.

Finally reaching the top of the mountain, Xander lowered himself to the ground and worked towards inner peace. Several times he was interrupted by the chattering Lemurs before he managed to find his center and sink into a deep trance.

Several hours later, he was rudely forced from his introspection by a massive slimy tongue licking his face and the vast majority of his body along with it. Taking a moment to spit and wipe in a futile attempt to clear himself of the spittle, Xander finally focused on the giggling Aang and happy Sky Bison that had slimed him. Finally taking off his shirt and clearing his face with the back of it Xander wrung out a considerable amount of saliva before launching the rolled up cloth at Aang. In a matter of minutes the two were running around the massive beast as Appa simply flopped to the ground and started to grumble out a conversation with the Lemurs.

*Scene Break*

Staring up at the oncoming avalanche, Xander cursed his luck. He had followed Aang as the nine year old had gone off on one of his adventures and long standing experience had taught him that the youngster was capable of drawing more trouble to himself than Buffy had been and God help him once Kuzon and that maniac Bumi got together with him. Xander wasn't quite sure how the planet survived their antics.

This time Aang had been putting the final touches on his air scooter, or at least trying to on a small shelf on the side of the mountain. Unfortunately, the experiment had gotten away from him and Xander was witness to a compressed ball of air with a nine year old rider shooting away and slamming into the side of the mountain starting a chain reaction that would likely see both Xander and the unconscious kid dead.

Rushing out, Xander grabbed the stunned Air bender, he didn't quite know what he was doing but Xander knew he couldn't run. That meant he could only face his inevitable death, so, turning towards the collapsing mountainside, Xander planted his feet solidly on the rock face. For a moment he felt a tingle in the soles of his feet before it ran up his body and out into his hands, much as Aang explained bending felt like while they were dancing. Taking a chance, Xander pushed out towards the tons of snow and dirt crashing down on them and was surprised as a massive stone block shot out of the mountain.

As the avalanche crashed around them, Xander held the position until the massive earthen tidal wave passed. Taking a shuddering breath, Xander collapsed to the ground trembling from exertion before turning towards Aang and carefully shaking the unconscious boy. He was slightly startled as Aang jerked straight up and looked around frantically shouting about starting a chicken-duck farm before dropping back to the ground.

Staring at him for a moment, Xander finally lifted the small kid and started making his way back towards the temple. Monk Tashi was cooking tonight and the crotchety old goat always did make a mean curry. He was thinking that maybe Monk Gyatso or Monk Pasang could help him get some earth bending training. Of course, from what he saw of Bumi and some of the other Earth Benders, their training seemed to revolve around surviving big things being thrown at them and if it was all the same maybe he could just figure it out on his own.

*Scene Break*

Shifting slightly away from an attack from the manic little monstrosity, Xander shifted his footing to a more secure stance and pushed, focusing the energy back down into the earth and towards his opponent. Xander sighed as instead of the massive stone spikes he was going for, the ground rippled into a one foot section of inch tall spikes. Shifting slightly, Xander felt the energy and pulled, this time creating a ten foot tall barrier of rock that blocked everything the "mad genius" Bumi threw at him.

In the year since he had discovered he was an earth bender, Xander had learned that he wasn't as good on the attack as other earth benders. Bumi claimed that it was a psychological issue, or possibly an issue with his mother. He had also brought up a rather dramatic monologue over the inherent strengths of two-ply toilet paper compared to three that bothered Xander on a level he didn't even want to comprehend. The fact that the little menace had actually created toilet paper, before they had even created toilets, just from a conversation Xander had been a part of was a little unsettling and really put into focus that, despite his eccentricities the kid really was a genius.

Refocusing on the fight, Xander tried to come up with a plan. While his defenses were some of the best Bumi had ever seen, Xander really did suck at the attack. Taking a moment to rebuild his defenses, Xander took a deep breath and built up an image in his mind before giving a stomp. Surprisingly enough, his plan worked and a stone sword popped out of the ground. Grabbing the heavy blade, Xander felt old memories rush back and he charged. He may be horrible at attacking with Earth bending, but maybe a more personal approach would give him an edge.

*Scene Break*

Shifting his feet out into a lower stance, Xander felt the energy rush up into his hands before he shoved outwards again, throwing a series of massive stones towards his opponent. He was pleased when his partner followed through with the plan and the fire bender caught the massive stone ablaze. In the last year, Xander had gotten considerably better at attacking. He was still better at hand to hand combat, but that gap was rapidly closing. With a pulse of air, Monk Gyatso shoved the first stone away before spinning left and around the second and third. With a little energy and two steps the old monk had managed to completely bypass their attack and was now considerably closer to the combatants than either wanted. Throwing up a wall of earth, Xander and Shukan moved back to give them some combat room.

With another burst of air, Gyatso leapt over the wall before hitting the ground with a third burst, throwing up a blinding spray of pebbles and dust. Another stone wall came up as the two tried to clear their vision before Xander saw his mistake. The air blast had been a distraction to get them to look away and a stone wall was just as effective at blocking their sight as dust and rocks, dropping the wall Xander watched helplessly as a micro tornado whipped past him and knocked Shukan out of the fight. In the last five minutes Gyatso had knocked out fifteen assorted air and fire benders with Xander as the only Earth Bender playing. Throwing up his best defenses, Xander rolled a massive ball of granite around him and tried to think up a plan of attack, he never even managed to think one up before he was unconscious.

Waking up, Xander spared a glare for the good natured old man before shaking his head and moving back to take a seat on the stones and listen to the older man's advice. While he still hated getting beaten like that, he was at least smart enough to learn from his defeats. Several of the fire nation students had stormed off, their pride battered at the thought of this old man besting them single handedly. Xander was mildly pleased that Shukan had stayed. The guy was obnoxious, but was a pretty cool guy all the same, besides it was hard to hate a guy that seemed so very interested in everything involving the Southern Air Temple.

*Scene Break*

Xander ran, he knew Aang well enough to know the twelve year old was not dealing with the whole Avatar thing very well. The systematic shunning from everyone else at the temple had really impacted the nearly impossibly chipper kid and Xander cursed himself for leaving. True he had really learned a lot at Ba Sing Se, but he had missed out on helping his little brother through a difficult time. Now the Council was trying to get Gyatso taken away as caretaker and Xander had a pretty good idea of Aangs response. After the hellmouth, Xander would bet that the young man had listened in on the Council at precisely the wrong moment and ran off before the rest of the conversation could be finished with the decision for Gyatso to go with him to the Eastern Air Temple for further training.

Rushing out into the storm, Xander was just in time to see the massive Sky Bison step off the edge with a familiar bald kid on its back. With every last ounce of power behind him, Xander used earth bending to launch himself into the air after his little brother and for a brief moment as he flew through the storm Xander's mind flashed back to his arrival in this strange little world before he landed on the wet, hairy back of Appa and scared the crap out of both the sky bison and the young Avatar.

After a brief conversation, Xander managed to convince the distraught Aang to only fly down to the western water village for the weekend before returning. Having fixed that, Xander settled down in the back of Appa's saddle and slowly drifted off to sleep, it had been a long trip from Ba Sing Se and he hadn't gotten any rest.

Several hours later Xander woke up to the thrashing turbulence of the Sky Bison in the storm, moving towards the struggling Aang, Xander barely missed getting a hold of him as Appa lost altitude and crashed into the heavy waves, after a moments futile struggling in the rough surf, Xander was dragged under by a ten ton Sky Bison.

Then there was a flash of light.

And then there was nothing.

*Scene Break*

(A/N) I do not own BtVS Or Avatar: tLAB

Depending on reviews I may or may not continue this.


	2. Snow Daze

Xander groaned as he slowly came back to the world of the living and momentarily considered simply… not. Waking up in cold wet sky bison fur is not exactly Xander's idea of a pleasant morning.

Grumbling a bit, Xander untangled himself before looking around and not seeing Aang , he started to worry.

"Will you go penguin sledding with me?"

And then the worry faded. Stumbling over the icy snow bank, Xander finally spotted his little brother just as a man with a spear started to poke him. In a rush, Xander took a stomping step forward and ipushed./i The small collection of rocks and stones he kept in his pockets leapt toward the threat with deadly intent.

When they were halfway there, Aang casually batted the spear aside with a shrug and Xander realized that the threat was barely older than Aang himself. Jerking back into a horse stance, Xander pulled the rocks to a halt inches from the strange boy's face.

"EEP!" The young male squeeked, before stumbling back in a panic.

"XANDER!"

Looking up, Xander was surprised to see Aang launch himself through the air towards him, smiling happily. Xander smiled too and waited for the last second to grab the small airbender in a headlock and start a noogie any bully from Sunnydale high would be proud of. "DOES THIS LOOK LIKE THE WESTERN WATER VILLAGE? WELL? DOES IT?" he shouted before letting the younger boy go. Aang, for his part danced back and quickly rubbed his bald scalp to lessen the pain before turning a glare on the older boy.

Any argument between the two was interrupted by the low rumbling of Appa behind him. In a flash, Aang's entire mood changed and he rushed towards the massive air bison, scrambling like a monkey to reach his partner and flung himself onto the forehead of the massive beast, laughing in joy that Appa had made it through all right.

"What is that thing?" the unknown male said in shock as he stared at the Sky bison in an odd mixture of awe and hunger, Xander could almost see him picturing Appa on a spit over an open fire.

Smiling at the two, Aang cheerfully ignored the hungry look in the boy's eyes as he responded, "This is Appa, my flying bison," he answered proudly as the older boy snorted.

"Riiiight, and this is Katara, my flying sister" he answered snarkily.

Xander watched as his sister drew back a fist to respond in the universal sibling language when a soft sniffling drew his attention towards Appa. Taking full notice of the Sky bison, Xander knew from long experience what was coming next and reacted. Launching himself through the air, Xander tackled the closest teen to the ground and shielded her from the blast range and with an explosive sneeze, the ten ton Sky Bison shot several gallons of nasal mucus that hit the unfortunate male and covered him in the green goo that would do any Nickelodean show proud.

"Ewww! Aahh," the slimed teen shuddered before attempting to wipe the mucus off in the snow.

Ignoring Aang's response to the other teen's reaction, Xander leveraged himself up and offered his hand to the shocked girl. "Sorry about that, experience has shown me that Appa can be a bit, energetic, when he sneezes." Xander apologized and helped pull her to her feet before taking notice of the slimed one responding to Aang.

"Don't answer that! Did you see that crazy bolt of light? They were probably trying to signal the Fire Navy." He said as he once more pointed his spear at Aang.

Once more reaching for his bending, Xander surprisingly enough found the world spinning away as the full effects of his ordeal finally made their displeasure known.

Hitting the snow, Xander vaguely heard Aang shouting at him before he drifted off.

*Scene Break*

Xander groaned as he sat back up and looked around, somehow the younger crowd had managed to get him up on Appa and the Sky Bison was currently swimming towards a small collection of water bender style huts under the direction of Katara as Aang snored on the large mammals head.

Groaning again as he sat up, Xander tried to ignore the intense exhaustion that permeated his body, "Where are we?"

"The Southern Water Tribe, my home." Katara explained with a smile before waving at the awe struck villagers that were coming out to see them.

Waking Aang up was quickly done and everyone was introduced. After a moment of pleasantries, Xander stepped aside with the Elder as Aang started to show off with his glider staff.

Finding a nice, secluded area, Xander turned towards the Elder with a frown and asked,"Alright Gran-Gran, what are you trying to pull?" Xander's tone challenged as the old woman simply stared at him. "Unlike Aang, I've been to the Southern Water Tribe, and it's a hundred thousand strong. I've stood in the Temple of the Full Moon and watched as the last rays of sunlight threw colors into the sky for a thousand miles, I paced the Great Tide Walls, greater even than Ba Sing Sa and you want me to believe that in two seasons all of that has disappeared?" Xander let his paranoid rant drift off as Gran-Gran finally found her voice.

Shocked nearly beyong words, Gran-Gran leaned forward and searched the young man's face for signs of deception. "Child I don't know if you are lying, delusional or if I am just going mad, but our tribe was decimated in the first year of the war. From a hundred thousand we dropped to less than ninety-six hundred, most of our benders died in a desperate bid to protect the air nomad temples from the fire nation. Those that survived have been running from them ever since. Lord Sozin himself destroyed the Temple of the Full Moon and the wall simply faded away in the hundred years since." Gran-Gran explained and was shocked at the pain and anguish that washed over the young man's features. "Y-you actually were here, but that was over a century ago, during the time of the Avatar."

Stepping back in shock, Xander worried. "A hundred years," he whispered as he felt the familiar deep soul crushing despair hit him as his world was once again being ripped away. Taking a moment to center himself as Monk Gyatso taught him, Xander finally looked back at the young airbender as he slammed into the side of the small snow embankment that surrounded the majority of the village, "Don't tell Aang, I'll break it to him."

Walking back towards them, Gran-Gran followed quickly and dragged Katara off. "All right. No more playing. Come on, Katara, you have chores." That particular comment had the entire village desperately looking busy for several seconds before Gran-Gran and Katara had moved past.

Reaching out, Xander caught Aang's tongue as it crept toward his staff on a dare from the younger kids, "Did Monk Gyatso teach you nothing? You are supposed to get others to try that," Xander admonished as several of the smaller children laughed happily at the Airbender's plight.

Pulling the tongue slightly, Xander slipped his foot behind Aang's and let go. Jerking back from the sudden loss of pull, Aang tripped over Xander's foot and quickly tumbled to the snow. As the kids laughed, Xander helped the younger boy to his feet with a smile and motioned towards a less occupied area of the village. "Come on Aang, we need to talk,"

Walking away, Xander was happily surprised that Sokka pulled the kids off for a meeting of some kind. Going over to an area that they couldn't be overheard, Xander put a Hand on Aang's shoulder and got serious. "Aang, we may have a problem," Xander said as the perpetually happy kid looked up at him with a smile.

"I know, I'm sorry that we didn't make it to the Western Water Village, but we got to meet Katara and Sokka and we can be back to the Temple in plenty of time, we may be a day later than we wanted, but Monk Gyatso will understand." The younger boy said with his trademark good humor.

Sighing sadly, Xander leaned against the snow wall and slowly drooped to the ground. "I don't think so Aang, something around here doesn't add up. I think… I think we may have been frozen for longer than you think."

Cocking his head to the side, Aang considered that before responding "How long? A couple days?"

"Try a few decades, these people have been fighting a war for a hundred years." Xander explained as he saw that finally impact the younger boy's mood.

"A hundred years… my room is going to be a mess." Aang responded before getting a strange look on his face, "Oops, gotta go." He shouted before taking off in a panicked run towards one of the igloos.

Sighing at his younger brother's antics, Xander leveraged himself to his feet and headed towards the gathered children as Sokka marched in front of them imperiously. As he approached, Xander saw Sokka ask a question and get a response from every single one of the children that seemed to fray on his last nerve before the kids ran off.

"So you're the designated warrior of the tribe," Xander asked the scowling teen before giving him a friendly slap on the shoulder. "Come on, I know a thing or two about being the one without powers, let me show you how to fight a bender."

That certainly got the younger man's attention and after some consideration Sokka grabbed his spear and followed.

*Scene Break*

Drawing two circles, one at fifteen and the other at twenty feet from the center, "Alright, that is the preferred distance of the Firebenders. If you are facing one and you are within that area as Monk Gyatso says, 'Somebody gonna get a hurtin.' Surprisingly enough, that is also the preferred distance of Waterbenders. Airbenders prefer the contact to the ten foot range and Earthbenders prefer the twenty feet and beyond. Learn these distances by heart because if you're within their preferred range you are in trouble, so change it as quickly as you can." Xander watched as Sokka nodded in understanding.

"All right, now most benders focus their abilities through a form of martial arts, so even if you close with them they are still physically dangerous. Some prefer weapons to supplement their bending so you have to be prepared. Some benders can even attack with bending from their mouths, eyes or head gestures. When you engage one, take them out quickly," Xander explained before taking a stance in the middle of the circle, "Alright, I'm an Earthbender, but you can still train. Attack!"

At his order, Sokka gripped his spear and charged with a strangled scream.

slapping the spear aside, Xander stepped forward and shoved the young man, sending him sprawling. "Don't yell. You yell to demorilize and scare, but against a bender you're just warning them that you're coming. Silence is your friend. Also if you are going to use a spear, don't get so close. Remember, these are soldiers you are going up against."

Nodding, Sokka grabbed the spear and attacked again.

For the next hour, the two went back and forth, pounding the circles into a flat disk. Xander was surprised at how quickly the younger man picked it up and how much innate luck the young man seemed to possess, nearly as much as Aang.

At that thought, Xander realized that he hadn't seen his younger brother in several hours and flinched as he realized something bad was likely to happen because of that fact.

As if on cue a flare shot up from the east and exploded in some sort of signal, "Aaw hell! Aang," Xander muttered before glancing at the furious Sokka before shaking his head and moving back towards the village. The fallout from this would not be good.

*Scene Break*

(A/N) So, there is the first Episode, let me know what you think, and thanks for all the wonderful reviews.

-Tjin


	3. The One Returns

Walking back towards the small village, Xander put a hand on Sokka's shoulder. "Don't accuse," he said and waved the younger man's angry comment away before it could get started. "I used to do it a lot, I had a lot of responsibility, but no way of enforcing it, so I got angry and frustrated and lashed out at people. Thankfully, I learned better and I am passing on the advice. I can see you're either mad at Aang, your sister, or yourself I don't know. My father wasn't around to give me this advice, it took a truly great man to explain it to me and I am now passing it on. 'If you have to make a decision do it, but accusations just breed anger.'" Letting the steaming mad teen go, Xander made his way back toward the village.

He was nearly there when a silent Sokka joined him and they quickly entered the village proper.

Moving about the small village Xander collected the few articles he and Aang had unpacked in the short time they had been here as the villagers assembled on the eastern side of the small village and waited for the return of the trouble maker. They didn't have long to wait before several of the younger children cried out happily and rushed towards Aang.

Finishing up with Appa, Xander patted the large Sky Bison on the forehead and made his way towards the small crowd. He could practically see Sokka vibrate with fury before the young man looked at Aang.

"What happened?" the young warrior grated out before Katara stepped forward to explain.

"It wasn't Aang's fault, it was an accident," she defended the small Airbender as Aang nodded glumly.

"Yeah, we were on the ship and there was this booby trap and well," Aang tried to explain as he rubbed the top of his head in embarrassment.

"Let me guess you boobied into a boo-boo," Xander stated, rather than asked and chuckled at Aang's flush of embarrassment. "I figured as much. I didn't want to believe you could possibly get into this much trouble this quick, but then after the ferri-phant incident, and the Octi-whale, and of course who could ever forget the legendary Ba Sing Sa Special delivery service. I'll bet Street vendors are still reinforcing their stalls with steel," Xander mocked as Aang's blush increased, even if others didn't get why.

Standing up for her new friend, Katara stepped forward, "That sounds almost as interesting as the great tiger seal trap," she stated with a wicked twinkle in her eye as she looked at her brother.

Sokka finally exploded, "KATARA YOU SWORE YOU WOULD NEVER BRING THAT UP!" He half shouted, half whined before turning back to Aang. "The traitor has confessed, the foreigner is banned from our village forever!"

Blinking at the raging teen, Xander spoke up, "Umm… hate to throw a wrench into what is looking like a great rant, but to be a traitor, Aang would have had to swear loyalty to the village, which he hasn't. Be one of your warriors, which he isn't AND he would have to knowingly give aid or assistance to an enemy. Again, we have to answer, no he hasn't," Xander explained rationally.

The young man got very red in the face extremely rapidly, but it had given everyone else a chance to get a grip on their emotions.

Taking another step forward, Katara placed a hand on Sokka's shoulder, "This is a mistake, Sokka. He can help us," She pleaded before looking at the rest of the village. "Aang isn't our enemy, he brought something we haven't had in a long time. Fun."

Watching the back and forth, Xander sighed. He may not be an Airbender, but he could tell which way the wind blew and even though he could probably argue their way out of this, Aang was just too much of a wild card to ever make it work. He would leave the village with his little brother.

The drama passed quickly and in a few minutes, Xander and Aang were saying their goodbyes to the village and settling down as Appa slowly walked off across the frozen tundra. Xander really did wish the best for the village, but he was an Earthbender and he had a little brother to tend to.

*Scene Break*

Lying on his stomach, Xander watched his two companions. Aang and Appa were lounging on an ice drift and for a tiny bit, Xander had wondered how the huge creature could lie on his back without crushing their stuff, but he just figured the fluffy bison fur mitigated the weight.

Looking up at his brother, Xander rolled his eyes because Aang was mooning over his lost friend. The older of the two wasn't quite sure if it was just friendship or something far more drama inducing and seriously doubted that either Aang or Katara could figure it out either.

Aang stated out loud, as if in answer to Appa grumble, "Yeah, I miss her too."

Dropping his face into the snow pack, Xander resisted the urge to scream. Definitely drama inducing. Xander was so engrossed in resisting the urge that he was surprised when Aang dropped to the snow with a comment about the village and after vaguely commenting that either he should watch Appa or Appa was to watch him, took off running into the distance.

Blinking at the sudden turn of events, Xander looked over in the direction of the village and growled at sight of the ship that disappeared into the growing mist. Cursing his impetuous brother's idiocy, Xander forced himself to his feet and grabbed a bag of rocks from his pack that he refused to go anywhere without.

Xander took a running start before skidding to a stop at Appa's loud rumble. Turning to look at the massive sky bison, Xander shrugged, "If you don't want to help my idiot brother then stay here. We'll be back when we're done. If you want to help, come on." Xander stated simply before running in the direction of the village where he could already see fire bending being put to work.

*Scene Break*

Jumping onto the damaged snow wall, Xander took in the situation. Aang was guarding the villagers as he desperately struggled to keep the flames of the Firebenders away. Sokka was down with three Fire Nation soldiers laid out nearby and Katara was watching wide eyed at the confrontation. Dropping down, Xander felt the familiar tingle of the energy he used for bending before jerking straight up so that in that moment a wall of stone formed between the Fire Nation soldiers and the village. Glaring at the shocked Water Tribe, Xander bellowed, "RUN!"

In a second the stupor was gone and the villagers fled, leaving Aang free from the responsibility of defending them. A moment later, Xander felt the energy of his stone wall get overloaded and a new player entered the scene. A somewhat portly the older man who still held himself in a manner Xander attributed to the master vampires back home, the ones that knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that they were better than the others, but hadn't yet let it go to their heads.

"You see, Prince Zuko, this is why you must learn the basics," The older man chastised the young Fire Nation prince as that one held his side.

Watching as the older man stood, Xander felt very concerned because there were few things as dangerous during a protracted war as an _old_ warrior. Taking a deep breath, Xander stepped forward carefully. "Well it seems we got off on the wrong foot and I hate to be rude so how about we try again? My name is Xander, third scout of the Earth-Rend Legion and Master of the Broken Core. This is my little brother Aang, second most annoying of the Air Nomads… in exile and Master Troublemaker," Xander said and prayed nobody caught the slip. While he wasn't sure of everything that had happened, Xander was sure by the shocked looks of the villagers that most Airbenders were gone, Gran-Grans statement of the loss of the air temples was also troublesome.

"Air Nomads in exile? Interesting," the older man said as he rubbed his beard thoughtfully before bowing. "I to apologize for this misunderstanding, My name is Iroh, Tea Master of the third Tri-ang, Dragon of the West, General of the Fourth Fire Nation Army and commander of the siege of Ba Sing Sa, retired." Iroh watched Xander carefully for any signs of recognition before continuing, "Behind me is my nephew, Prince Zuko, Crown prince in Exile of the Fire Nation," Iroh said and prayed that his nephew would remain silent. This young Earthbender was definitely of interest, especially if he was truthful about the Air Nomads still being around. "And who leads these Air-Nomads in exile, may I ask?" Iroh pressed hopefully as the young man seemed a bit cagey about the questions. Understandably so, of course, but still a valuable intelligence asset.

Thanking every being or spirit that might exist that the con had worked, Xander kept half an eye on the fuming your man behind the general. "You mean the geezer? Monk Gyo's older than dirt, but the older warriors and monks hold him in pretty high regard. I guess he leads them."

"THAT MUST BE THE AVATAR!"

In a moment, Xander and Iroh both were back in defensive stances with Iroh cursing his Nephew's impulsiveness. The first real lead they might have had in three years and Zuko couldn't remain quiet long enough to get a location.

Rolling back away from the sudden onslaught of boulders, Iroh responded by launching an arching fire attack at the ground before him, melting some of the icepack in a slight crescent shape and leaving a trough to move the stones away. While it was a nearly useless move in combat, the loss of the ground meant the Earthbender had to use greater force and focus when attacking by keeping the stones in the air. A great strategy when fighting one on one.

Cursing the move, Xander kicked three more boulders in the Fire bender's direction before flattening the first, creating a bridge. He growled slightly as the young hot-head flipped easily over the remains of the rock wall before attacking Aang head on. Sending up a quick prayer for his brother's safety, Xander focused on the issue at hand.

After a few more volleys, Xander took full stock of the situation again. He was outclassed by the old warrior, yet the man was simply pressing to keep his attention, almost testing him as he fought. Aang was currently playing the Airbenders dance against the Zuko character while Sokka and Katara fought the remaining firebenders. The entire situation was at a stalemate until the grumbling roar of a skybison forced everyone's attention to the charging beast. Taking the moment's distraction to launch a small storm of pebbles and dust into the interior of the fire nation ship, Xander grabbed hold of Sokka and leapt for the rampaging beast.

Thankfully, Aang had a similar idea and quickly joined them with Katara as Appa charged right back out of the village, dodging the fireballs that the benders sent after them and the rest being swatted by Aang. Finally reaching a far enough distance, Aang took up his normal position on the bison's head and happily flicked the reins, "Appa, Yip-Yip"

As the massive beast became airborne, Xander dropped to the floor of the saddle basket and frowned. Pulling out a blue bundle that hadn't been there before, he noticed the note sticking out of it and opened it up. After skimming the note, he read it aloud to the two Water Tribe youth, "Sokka and Katara, you will need these things. You have a long journey ahead of you and you need to be prepared. It's been so long since I've had hope. But you brought it back to life, my little Waterbender, and you too, my brave warrior. Be nice to your sister. Aang is the Avatar. He's the world's only chance. You both found him for a reason. Now your destinies are intertwined with his, learn what you can from Xander and find your destiny. Good luck my children."

Folding the note up, Xander handed it to Katara for safe keeping, before handing the bundle off to Sokka and retaking his seat. After a moment's pause, Xander finally looked back at the two from the Water Tribe and said, "Gran-Gran was right you know, we can't go back to your village."

Listening to the two talk, Xander was amazed at how quickly they jumped onto the Avatar bandwagon and started making plans. Of course these plans were sidelined by Aang's never ending quest for new and interesting things to ride, but hopefully they would be able to save the world somewhere in between them. It felt almost like the old gang, saving the world between school and dancing; Aang the prophesied hero, Katara the super brain always willing to discover something new, Sokka the easy going normal one and Himself the…

As one the group of young teens looked back at Xander's anguished howl of despair, at the fact that he had become the Giles. When had that happened?

*Scene Break*

Behind them, the crew of Prince Zuko's ship worked frantically to clear the rocks and dirt from the important gears of the small destroyer as the prince himself raged against the knowledge of being so close and missing the Avatar. Those two knew where the Avatar was, and he would chase them to the ends of the earth to find him and regain his honor.

Inside his cabin, Iroh stared at the map carefully and thought back to the reports and files his fellow Guardians within the White Lotus had gotten hold of from that first horrible year of the war. "A hidden nation of Airbenders," He mused thoughtfully before setting about sending his friends and allies in search. This was grand news indeed for the White Lotus.

Behind him, a Fire Nation soldier watched carefully before slipping off into the gathering darkness to report, after all this time he had finally returned.

(A/N) this worked out nicely, Zuko will continue to hunt Aang and Xander and the story can continue… yay.

I considered having Azula be the banished one, just to mess with people's heads, (You keep asking me to show you what has changed!) but death threats from my beta convinced me to reconsider.

P.S. This is a review driven story, until I get a certain number of reviews I will not continue writing and instead I will focus on my other works. And one person posting 'Good work' a bunch of times does not reviews make. If you want to say good work that is great, but please only post it once.


	4. Flying Southern Air Temple

Watching the sun rise over the lake, Xander wondered how many times he could explain this before it sunk through the young airbender's head. Taking a deep breath to steady himself, Xander moved back towards Appa and Aang as the latter extolled the greatness and majesty of the Southern Air Temple to Katara while he fiddled with Appa's reins.

"Wait 'til you see it, Katara, the Air Temple is one of the most beautiful places in the world."

Letting out a deep sigh, Xander used a rock pulse to launch himself up onto Appa's back. Landing softly, he dropped down to straddle the sky bison's neck before leaning forward and resting his chin on his hands. "Aang, man I hate to throw this out, but they probably think we died, a hundred years ago." Xander said and took the confused look on the kid's face as proof that some of the rusty cogs inside his skull where working.

"Do you… think they gave away my room?"

Dropping his head, Xander screamed into Appa's fur for a moment before looking back up. "Yes, Aang. Not only do I think they gave away our rooms, I am worried that Monk Gyatso might be dead," He finally said bluntly and noticed that Aang acknowledged that much at least.

"I understand, Xander, but I have to see it for myself. I know that everything I know and cared about might be gone, but I… I still have to see," the young Avatar said seriously before turning back with a smile. Besides, Monk Gyatso was like three hundred when I left. What's a bit more time to someone like that?"

Watching his brother float down to the ground, Xander was surprised when a light smack drew his attention to the young Waterbender that had joined them.

"You don't have to be mean," Katara said with a frown before blushing at the older man's glare and returning to packing.

Turning back as Aang tricked Sokka into waking up with the age old tactic of 'SNAKE!' Xander looked skyward and sent up a silent plea for forgiveness as well as a solemn vow to never mock Giles again. While he was sure he and the gang hadn't been anywhere near this bad, he could finally relate to the old Watcher.

Shifting back into the basket saddle, Xander double checked that everything was secured before turning his attention to the still embarrassed Katara. Reaching out, he gripped her shoulder slightly to get her attention. "Hey, I understand that you like Aang, but he is my brother and the Avatar besides. A sudden shock like the unexpected deaths of the Airbenders could send him over the edge. The ancient scrolls call it the 'Avatar state' and from what I managed to read up on it, it is capable of imassive/i amounts of destruction." Xander then dropped his serious expression before shifting back to get comfortable, "I don't want Aang to accidently hurt you or himself when he comes face to face with the truth."

Taking her nod as understanding agreement, Xander relaxed slightly until the still sleepy Sokka slowly dragged himself onto the Sky Bison and tried to get comfortable as the ever chipper Aang took his seat on Appa's head.

As they got airborne, Xander contemplated the young Water Tribe Warrior before coming to a decision. "Hey Sokka," Xander said over the rushing wind and continued when the young man finally opened his eyes, "You still want to learn how to fight benders?" he asked and smirked as the teen sat straight up in anticipation, nodding quickly.

Chuckling at the young man's antics, Xander decided to train Sokka as Monk Gyatso had trained him when he first arrived in this strange world. "All right, but first you need to get into shape."

After a brief squawk of protest, Sokka finally managed to work words into his argument, "Wh-what? I already have a shape, a great shape. I am in the best shape of the entire village!"

*Xander was slightly shocked at Katara's comment on his Sokka Shape before shaking off the feeling of longing he felt for his old home and smiling again, "Yes but remember your village is currently occupied by old people and children. Being the strongest there has very little to do with actually being in shape." Xander countered and waved his hand to break off any protests or pouting. "You are going up against soldiers, Sokka. Fire Nation benders and troops, quite possibly the BEST the fire nation has to throw at us and you can never be in too good a shape to deal with that."

Finally the young man nodded in acquiescence and Xander clapped his hands together happily, banishing Katara from the saddle basket and up onto appa's head with Aang. Xander cleared a spot in the center large enough for Sokka to lay out flat, "Alright then, the first step is to get your wind up as well as you core so… I want ten thousand sit-ups. Eventually we will work up to something really hard, but this is the first step." Xander said cheekily and refused to cackle madly at the young man's shocked and horrified look.

Before he could get really into a rant about how impossible such a feat was, Xander leaned forward conspiratorially and whispered, "If you want, Aang has the secret to making it possible. It won't be easy, mind you, but it iwill/i be possible."

Watching the young man scramble towards Appa's head, Xander leaned back and thought back to the first time Monk Gyatso had ordered him to do the same thing and much like Sokka he had believed the act impossible until Aang had whispered the answer. The secret to doing ten thousand sit-ups, was to do one sit up ten thousand times.

"THAT'S NOT A SECRET!" Came the indignant screech from the boy.

Chuckling at the repetition of his own exact words, Xander shut his eyes and tried to get some rest. He had the oddest feeling this was going to be a very long day.

*Scene Break*

Hundreds of miles away, the battered Fire Nation vessel finally made landfall and worked its way into the berth. Dwarfed by its sister ships, the small vessel still garnered respect from those that recognized it. The engineers made their way onboard to repair the damage suffered at the hands of the thrice cursed Earthbender. While Iroh and Zuko made polite small talk with the newly minted Commander Zhao, a small squad from the Prince's vessel snuck off into the camp to make their report.

Moving silently into a brightly lit room, a random assortment of ranks and positions were to be seen among the Firebenders there. The leader of the squad bowed respectfully to the others before smiling and speaking loud enough for all to hear, "Grand news brothers, ihe/i has returned."

Immediately several sets of eyes were on him as the gathered Firebenders leaned forward in interest.

"You know this, how?" One asked solemnly as he tried to restrain his excitement at the possibility of The One finally returning as the prophecy foretold.

Turning his focus towards the speaker, the first answered honestly, "I saw him, heard him speak his titles and watched as he fought General Iroh on the icepack."

Nodding at this, the gathered Firebenders consulted with each other and finally came to a decision. The eldest proclaimed, "Send out the call, the Brotherhood has Found Xander Harris and the time of the prophecy is now. We shall meet at Gaoling in one year's time Any assistance one can offer to Xander or his friends is to be given," the oldest of the brotherhood concluded before the gathered Benders disappeared to carry out their orders while the squad that brought the news quickly made their way back to the ship.

Just in time to be interrogated by Commander Zhao's troops.

*Scene Break*

"Five Hundred," Sokka grated out another sit-up before his work was interrupted by a deep growl that resonated from either the bowels of hell itself, or his own gut… Nobody on the Sky Bison was quiet able to tell which.

Chuckling at the memory of his own hunger pangs, Xander dove into his pack and rummaged around for a minute before returning triumphantly with his prize. Offering it to the younger male, "Earth Bender Elite Scout Food-stuff," Xander announced as he handed the thin, hamburger sized wafer over to Sokka. "It's only slightly less edible than mud and considerably less flavorful, but it will keep the noise down to a dull roar and keep you moving all day." Xander smiled and continued, "It has also been proven to greatly increase the hunting abilities of all that eat it, but for the most part it is just assumed that they don't want to go back to eating the things." Watching Sokka gnaw on the brick-like substance for a minute, the young man gave up and went back to the bags and rummaged around desperately for food.

"Hey! Who ate all my Blubbered Seal Jerky?" Sokka complained and ignored the deep shudder from both Xander and Katara as Aang looked back in confusion.

"Ohh, that was Food?" he asked in shock before shrugging. "I used it to start the campfire last night," Aang explained before looking back. "Sorry," he apologized as Xander moved forward to take his regular seat on Appa's neck.

Tapping Katara on the shoulder, Xander smiled as she jumped slightly at the contact before raising an eyebrow questioningly. "Everything all right? You haven't been real chatty recently and you seem a bit jumpy," Xander explained the question and was surprised when the rather strong willed girl sagged with a depressed sigh.

"I'm Sorry Xander, it's just… You and Sokka get along with each other so well and Aang is so excited about going home that I…" she trailed off as she searched for the right words to explain.

"You are worried we will get disappointed and you're also feeling a bit left out." Xander pressed slightly and nodded as she blushed and started fidgeting with Appa's fur. "Come on then, I might not be a Waterbender, but I've talked to enough of them to have an idea on how they work, so I can at least give you some pointers." Xander smirked again, "Besides I need to work on my own bending and I doubt we've seen the last of our hot-headed little friend and his portly dragon." Xander said before shifting back into the saddle. After a moments argument Sokka went forward to sit with Aang as Xander pulled out a metal wok that he had bought over a hundred years earlier in Ba Sing Sa and added some water.

Getting into a comfortable position, Xander took a deep breath to center himself and started to explain, "Alright, from what was explained to me, Waterbending is all about a continuous motion or a flow of the element from one position to another. Simple circles are used to build up the energy until you reach the amount you want and then lash out. The simple back and forth motion I've seen you play with is a basic movement based off the ocean on a beach. Back and forth and back and forth," Xander explained before motioning to the bowl. "Now the next step would logically be the surge; raise the water up slightly, build the energy into it and then push forward. You let the water do what it is supposed to do."

Watching her work, Xander smiled as the water started to shift slightly under her command. "Don't force it. Water flows, it has to build up the energy and the only time you should use force is at the last moment when you pull ALL the energy from the water and leave it as ice."

Several hours later Katara had become proficient in both the basics of the surge and the act of freezing water while she worked.

Xander played with his rocks in an attempt to get back into practice. Smiling at the excited young woman, Xander felt a tug as he remembered how excited Willow would get when mastering a new skill before burying the feeling of loss with the ease of long practice. "All right, there is one other thing I want you to work on. By pulling the energy from water you can freeze it, so now I want you to keep the water still and try to add energy ito/i it." Xander challenged and watched as Katara went to work. The skill of Steambending had been a theoretical possibility he had come up with during his time training with Shukan and the other allied benders while Monk Gyatso explained the ideas and concepts of the different bending arts.

The ideas had first formed when some of the students had discovered reports in the ancient libraries about Metalbenders, Lightningbenders, Swampbenders, Sandbenders and even Plantbenders that used forms of bending to work in new and interesting ways, after a lengthy talk, Xander had formed a small collection of likeminded interests into the 'Brotherhood' with the idea of finding new bending techniques.

They had come up with a lot, some silly, some funny, a couple interesting and a very select few that truly scared Xander to think about.

Blood, Spark, Silence and the Broken Core were the four sections that most scared him, Blood or Bloodbenders could control the flow of blood within a person, make others do things like puppets, or give themselves boosts of strength, speed and power that were abnormal. Sparks were Firebenders that could control the pulses and signals within a human body, to stop signals from the eyes and create blindness, signals from the arms and legs to create paralysis and some could even stop the pulses within the human heart. The Silence were Airbenders that could manipulate sounds and pressure such as increasing the pressure of nitrogen bubbles within the bloodstream, or the movement of toxic chemicals into a person's lungs.

And then there had been the Broken Core. Earthbenders with the unique understanding that the fundamental structure of the human body was made of bones, bones composed of calcium, Calcium that any young Earthbender was capable of shaping to their will. He had named it the Broken core after discovering that an unprepared Earthbender that used Bonebending wrong would be hit with a backlash that would destroy their inner core of energy that was used for bending. Most had died and of the ones who didn't, none had ever recovered their ability to bend.

Of the unique bending skills he had some idea about, Steambending was the most basic and while steam could be dangerous in quantity the truth was Katara would likely never manage enough power to use it combatively, but it would increase her strength in regular bending.

His internal thoughts were interrupted by Aang's excited statement that they were home. Looking up at the approaching temple, Xander also felt a brief surge of excitement before burying it under a tide of practicality.

They were all dead, it was best not to even think about it.

*Scene Break*

Walking up the path from the landing field, Xander listened to Sokka grumble, "So where do I get something to eat? Because no offense Xander, but I think I chipped a tooth on that… rock food you gave me," the young man complained with a sidelong glance at his sister.

Xander, for his part, tried to cover his snicker at the indignant response that comment got from Katara. The more he dealt with them the more he saw shades of himself and Willow within the two.

"You're lucky enough to be one of the first outsiders to i_ever/i_ visit an Airbender temple and all you can think about is food?" Katara demanded in shock as Sokka simply shrugged and continued up the path.

Smiling at the banter, Xander jogged forward and held Sokka back. "Don't worry about the food, let's give Aang and Katara a chance to poke around and I'll show you the legendary Air Temple kitchens. We can try and scare up some grub there," Xander said and was rewarded by a cheer that shook the mountain as Sokka rushed towards the abandoned temple.

Getting Katara's attention, Xander nodded towards Aang before taking off after Sokka as Katara went to listen to the modifications the air nomads had made to their game to allow play from other nations.

*Scene Break*

Moving through the darkened hallways of the air temple, Xander stopped from time to time as he observed the damage the temple had sustained. Scorch marks and Firebender armor was littered about the place in strategic points so that his mind built up a probable scenario of the Air Temple's last days. The lack of scorching on the areas at the landing site told him that it was likely that the Fire Nation soldiers had found a different way up, possibly by climbing ropes in the early morning hours.

The first signs of a fight had been in the temple courtyard, meaning they had already been in the temple before the monks knew what was happening. The scorch patterns had been light, so most likely an early riser had stumbled across them as they moved in. The scorch patterns got considerably worse from that point on.

While the Air Nomads hated violence and were some of the most peaceful people he had ever had the pleasure to meet, they were still benders, fighting on their own home turf. The Fire Nation had paid dearly to take this temple.

Pushing a doorway open Xander was surprised to see the room contained the remains of three fire nation soldiers in a repeating pattern, they had forced their way in over the bodies of their own soldiers.

Looking around the room carefully, Xander frowned before turning to the wide eyed Sokka, "What's wrong with this picture?" he asked.

Sokka scratched his head thoughtfully before turning back to him. "What's a picture?"

Resisting the urge to hit his head against a wall, Xander settled for throwing a dirty glare at the Water Tribe youth before trying again, "This scene, what is wrong with it? At least three Fire Nation soldiers battled their way into this room, the dents on their armor suggest that several more followed after them, they fought desperately to get in here so…" Taking another glance around the room, Xander leaned over to ask, "What were they fighting against?"

Leaving the small chamber, Xander could tell Sokka had finally hit on the problem. The dead Fire Nation soldiers were scattered everywhere, yet no Airbender corpses were to be seen.

"How Interesting," Sokka said sagely as he rubbed his chin in thought. He maintained that pose for several seconds before realizing he was alone in what amounted to a tomb with a bunch of dead Fire Nation soldiers.

While he would later argue that he kept a dignified air as he left the room.

Xander, however, distinctly remembered having to chase him through half the temple after jumping at him with a shout as he hit the hallway.

*Scene Break*

After calming Sokka down, Xander continued his search through the Air Temple as his confusion mounted. The kitchen and pantries were empty while clothes and even the sparse jewelry that the Air Nomads had was still there. "'Who robs the kitchen and leaves the cash?'" Xander quoted a cop drama from back home. He continued to search, gathering what few things were still viable after a century of neglect. Thankfully some cloth and gear survived and Xander took great pride in packing it with his other stuff before heading for the one place he really didn't want to go.

"What is this place?" Sokka asked as Xander stood before the rough wood door nervously.

Looking back at the boy, Xander took a deep breath to focus before answering, "This is- was, Monk Gyatso's room. What's in this room is the only reason I agreed to come back here," Xander answered before placing a hand on the door reverently. "Monk Gyatso was the strongest Airbender ever. He once stood up to his best friend while he was in the full Avatar state. He showed me that it was possible to fight a hundred benders without using his own even once and he was one of the greatest men I ever knew," Xandersaid softly before slowly pushing the door from its unnatural position.

In all the years he had been at the temple, Xander had never seen this particular door closed. Monk Gyatso had believed that nothing was so important that he could not set it aside for a friend.

Entering the small room, Xander smiled as the memories flooded back; all the conversations he had enjoyed with the older man, the jokes the Monk had shared and the wisdom he had willingly passed on. Taking a moment to wipe away a tear, the Earthbender started his search. Of all the Air Nomads, Monk Gyatso had been the one most involved with the Brotherhood. His wisdom had helped forge and encourage the young gathering of friends into new and amazing ideas. Xander was sure that once he had disappeared, Monk Gyatso would have kept the group together, through force of will alone if need be. The old man had seen the vision that Xander had for a gathering of the greatest minds in the world to keep the peace and to usher in a new age of bending.

After a few moments searching, Xander finally smiled as he pulled a well worn stone from the floor and looked into the crevice beneath. The packed grey sand was exactly what Xander had been looking for. Shifting the sand away, he found his treasure, the Journal and Treatise of Monk Gyatso. Wiping the sand from the aged leather surface, he opened the book carefully and smiled at the writing of his master.

Taking one of his backpacks, Xander quickly emptied its contents and transferred the book of knowledge into it before filling the surrounding area of the bag with sand to protect it. He made a mental note to get a courier bag as it would keep the moisture out better, but until then he made do with sealing the seams and around the flap with wax.

Of everything, only Aang and the siblings were now more important than ithis/i book.

Xander's musings were interrupted by the deep rumbling horns of a greater Airbender lock. Slipping the pack onto his back, Xander dashed in the direction of the great temple. Aang had opened the Sanctuary and if Monk Gyatso was right the younger boy would need help for what was to come.

*Scene Break*

Reaching the Sanctuary, Xander was ambushed (aka knocked down) by a frantic Lemur as it fled the pet manic Avatar. Rolling to his feet, Xander rushed after the duo as Sokka leapt for the protein source and barely avoided falling off a balcony.

Grabbing the younger male as he rushed past, Xander jerked him to his feet before taking off after Aang again.

Racing through the temple, Xander cursed because his original rush had winded him and the heavy backpacks weren't helping in catching the spry Airbender. Finally catching a break in a straight away, Xander poured on all the speed he could muster and just barely missed as Aang followed the Lemur out into open space.

Cursing slightly at his brother's fanatic obsession with animals, Xander scrambled up and followed, over the Balcony.

For a moment, he was back in his first moments in this new world, plummeting from on high like some ballistic meat bomb before he snapped out of it and acted. Shifting the stones, Xander formed an incline that he managed to surf down using his bending and natural friction to slow his descent. While nowhere near as fast as the lemur or Avatar, Xander still found himself keeping up.

Hitting the ground running, Xander missed a snatch at Aang's robe as the young boy moved into a battered building. Stopping for a moment, Xander snarled at the heavy fire damage the building had long since sustained before following his brother in.

Inside was a war zone. Dozens of Firebenders' remains lay scattered about a single Airbender corpse.

"Gyatso…" Aang whispered as he was finally confronted with the truth and even he couldn't pretend it wasn't so anymore.

Stepping forward, Xander pulled the young Airbender into a hug and waited. Monk Gyatso had warned him on that last night a hundred years ago that Xander must be there for Aang when he finally passed on. At the time, Xander had other worries on his mind like the runaway Avatar to really focus on that particular problem. It seemed Monk Gyatso had been wiser than even ihe/i had thought.

Feeling the buildup of unnatural amounts of energy, Xander held his brother tighter. He knew what was coming would not be pleasant, to say the least, but there was no way Xander could let his brother go through this alone.

In a flash of light, Xander was elsewhere, standing with a listless Aang in a mist as Shadows approached.

Reaching for his power, Xander was surprised when the forms materialized out of the mist and the second to the front, the largest that he could see, waved a hand and in a flash Xander felt his connection to the Earth fade.

Growling at being hindered, Xander shifted slightly and reached for his belt knife to defend Aang. "Who the hell are you?" he growled before silently cursing as his hands searched for his missing blade.

He was somewhat surprised when the beings spoke as one.

"We are the Avatars past lives. When he is at peace he may seek our wisdom while in this state, but now his emotions rule him," the assembled Avatars said before all eyes truly focused on Xander. "Warbringer, you are not of this world and you have unbalanced a great many things. No longer can we bring peace to our world with the simple overthrow of the Fire Nation."

For a moment Xander felt a flash of guilt at complicating things before burying that feeling deep, "I didn't ask to come here, I was thrown here. You want the ones responsible for that? Have fun looking for them and I hope you find them. I didn't have any rules or regulations handed to me and nobody warned me about some grand design, but even if they had I would have likely told them to shove it. I've seen the whole 'One person in all the world' system at work before and it is bullshit. Always has been, always will be. If everyone wants peace then EVERYONE FIGHTS!" Xander growled and prepared to defend himself as several of the Avatars seemed to get rather agitated at that comment.

Holding his brother tight with one hand, Xander prepared to fight them all, "Aang is my brother. Airbender, Avatar, last of his people, I don't care about any of that. He is my Brother and I will destroy anyone or anything that tries to manipulate him, harm him, or use him for their own designs. If I have to fight the Fire Nation then I will build an army and by god I will fight them. If I can't build an Army, then I will fight them by myself, if need be. I say to hell with anyone that gets in my way because if I have anything to say about it, my brother will die a great-great grandfather!"

Xander was surprised when a deep chuckle worked its way through the crowd and the tall woman turned to the foremost Avatar. Roku, if he remember correctly.

She smiled, "See, I told you the Brotherhood would make up for the Da Li," she said smugly before turning back to him. "Go then and be aware you have a hard path ahead of you, but recognize that you go now with the blessing of the Avatar."

In a rush, Xander felt his Earthbending abilities return before he found himself staring up at the broken remains of the hut he had started this whole Twilight Zone adventure in.

Groaning as he sat up, Xander looked around at the others and rubbed the back of his head, wincing when he discovered a rather nasty goose egg growing there.

Waving his hand to ward off Aang's self incriminating apology, Xander instead stretched slightly and glared at his brother. He knew he had to respond to Aang's having hurt him or the small Airbender would beat himself up about it for days to come. Finally making a decision, Xander shoved himself to his feet and marched over to his little brother to pull him into a hug. He said, "I don't blame you for freaking out, Aang, but you did embarrass me in front of the others so…" Xander let the moment linger before shoving a handful of snow down the back of the kid's shirt before heading back out of the hut. "Go talk to Appa, Squirt. I'll deal with Gyatso and we can head out in an hour or two."

Ignoring the cries of surprise and shock from the Avatar as the young Airbender stuggled to keep his back from contacting the cold, wet snow, Xander simply smiled as he pulled Katara into a hug as well. "Thanks for watching out for him," He whispered before giving Sokka a shove. "Come on Waterboy, looks like we have some work to do."

Xander knew that Appa would be exactly what Aang needed right now. The large bison would listen and grumble appreciatively before giving the boy a slimy lick across the face and let the boy hug him. Xander called it 'Fluffy Therapy.'

None of the kids were observant enough to notice the small flecks of glowing blue that now dotted Xander's eyes, and even if they had, they wouldn't know what it meant.

*Scene Break*

(A/N) And yes, things they be a changing! Hope you all enjoyed and if you did, let me know.


	5. Kyoshi island

"You have no idea where you're going, do you?" Sokka asked and went back to his sit-ups at Xander's look.

Ignoring the two, Xander turned back to Katara as she struggled with the wok.

Every now and then the energy to bend would force a movement out of the water and break her concentration.

"You need to focus. The energy of the Waterbender wants to flow and you have to stop it," Xander said, but leaned back at the young woman's glare.

"I'm not a Waterbender, Katara. I can't teach you how to do that, but I can teach you how to focus your energy into something else. Now whether that's of value to you or not is entirely up to you. We're done for today," Xander said before picking up the Wok and pouring the liquid back into the water bucket carefully and ignoring the heat radiating from the liquid.

He was worried. At this rate, Katara would learn everything he knew about Steambending before they ever reached the North Pole. "If you want something to do in your own time though, I do have something you can use to focus."

Grabbing his collection of rocks, Xander sorted them for a moment before finding a slightly porous stone and holding it up triumphantly. A quick bit of Earthbending and he had a hollow ball with water on the inside. Handing the sphere to Katara, Xander smiled. "This was something a friend of mine came up with back in the day, drawing water through things like rock and sand is hard and takes far more time and energy, so we built a series of stones with water within that a bender could use to practice."

Taking the water stone, Katara worked hard not to blush at the gift before turning her back on the oblivious Xander and focusing on the stone.

Turning back to Sokka, Xander helped the boy to his feet for the combat training. While most would consider sparring on top of a flying ten ton beast, hundreds of feet in the air over an ocean filled with unknown and untold horrors to be a bit extreme, Xander had a sneaky suspicion that Aang would attract more trouble than the Hellmouth and the gathered Aang Gang was going to need all the practice they could manage.

Besides, learning on this platform would make keeping your feet in a fight a piece of cake.

*Scene Break*

Struggling to pull himself back up Appa's side, Xander growled at the idiocy of that comment. Seven years of living off the Hellmouth and he still taunted Murphy, to his own embarrassment. Working his way underneath and back up to the top of the hairy beast, Xander smiled as Sokka leaned far over Appa's side yelling out for him to not be dead. Deciding on a thoroughly wicked idea, Xander lunged forward and gave the young Water Tribe boy a shove.

As the boy flailed wildly in an attempt to right himself, Xander made sure to get a grip on him so he wouldn't go over before pulling him back into the saddle basket. "Don't assume. If they fall they're still alive, if they're small they're still dangerous, if they're old they are still a threat. Understand?" Xander asked and took the slightly panicked nodding as confirmation that he had gotten through to the younger man.

Looking around carefully, Xander spotted the approaching island as Appa started to lose altitude. Rolling his eyes, Xander moved up to sit on Appa's neck and lean forward onto the big sky bison's head, "You do know we are in a bit of a rush to get to the northern water tribe right?" Xander asked and shook his head at the manic light in Aang's eyes as the boy just smiled at him. "And yet we are taking a break to ride something, aren't we?"

Considering the possible answers, Aang tried to put on the most innocent expressiom he could manage before looking back at his big brother. "Maybe," He hedged before Xander resorted to the time honored tradition of screaming into Appa's fur. "It won't take long. Besides Appa's tired, aren't you Appa." Aang said before rubbing Appa's skull encouragingly "Aren't you, Appa?" Aang pressed and smiled happily as the massive sky bison groaned in response.

Rolling his eyes at his brother's antics and deciding to make the best of a bad situation, Xander called out, "Sokka, looks like we're landing." He then headed back to the basket, "Looks like Aang will be busy, so scout the local area and be on the lookout for food and ANY threat potential. Katara, stay near Appa until we know the area is secure and be on the lookout for Water threats. If you see one I want you to create a water spout. That is the official danger signal for the water, if anyone sees that get OUT of the water. Sokka remind me to get you a warning device so you can signal as well, until then… just scream like a little girl and run away…"

Ignoring Sokka's indignant squawk, Xander turned to his brother, "Aang, I would LIKE you to not get into trouble, but I get the odd feeling that is a wasted wish, so at least try to not tick off anything you can't outrun."

As his brother gave him a rather unconvincing thumbs up, Xander just rubbed the side of his head as a very familiar headache started to form.

He had a bad feeling about this. He was slightly startled when the Lemur jumped up and started to imitate his actions, much to the entertainment of the rest.

*Scene Break*

Stalking towards the village, Xander's scowl sent many of the villagers running in terror. "I'm the Avatar" he growls as the embarrassed Aang followed behind.

"I'm sorry" the young Avatar said softly as Xander froze in mid-step before he slowly turned on his brother with a glare.

"Sorry? Sorry? Aang, the Entire Fire Nation is looking for the Avatar, right now they think he is an ancient geezer hiding in seclusion along with the rest of the Airbenders. They are spending all their resources looking for THEM and not trying to find YOU, and you just go and ANNOUNCE THAT YOU ARE THE AVATAR!" Xander raged as Aang continued to look more and more pathetic at his brother's rant.

"I'm really, REALLY, sorry?" He tried and flinched under the 'Look' his brother sent his way.

Resisting the urge to do the Fire Nation's job for them, Xander took several moments to calm himself before he throttled the life from his brother. "Well that makes it all okay then, we can just file this under 'I'm Really REALLY Sorry' and continue on with our lives." Xander said sarcastically as Aang brightened up.

"Really?"

"No. We are all going to spend the next several days screaming and running while many people lose their homes to the Fire Nation and it is all YOUR FAULT!" The rising volume of Xander's rant drew the attention of the entire village before Xander could stop himself.

Looking around at the sudden intense silence, he growled and stomped away with Aang following close behind, "Not that I feel any great loss for a bunch of cowards losing their homes, but I don't want the Fire Nation to discover we are a distraction from the real Avatar." He growled just loudly enough to be heard before he stomped off.

Thankfully, Sokka managed to catch on and quickly silenced Aang from speaking as the assembled Villagers murmured back and forth at the recent twist on their already surreal day.

Forcing himself to continue to stomp off, Xander prayed to anyone listening that his ruse continued to work. While the villagers would likely hurt them for lying and bringing the Fire Nation down on their heads, they were also very likely to pass on that final tidbit of information and hopefully distract the Hot Heads again. And while he didn't like the fact that people were likely to be hurt, it was a sacrifice he was willing to make to keep his little brother safe.

*Scene Break*

Xander quickly found that he was persona non grata for the populace of the island. Calling them cowards and bringing down the Fire Nation was obviously not the best way to make friends and influence people, but still, Aang had become a local semi-celebrity and his ego was growing slightly larger than was healthy. Katara was in a snit and Sokka was trying to convince him that he could beat up any girl with delusions of martial skills.

Rubbing his forehead, Xander waited until he could be impassive before turning to the younger man. "Sokka, the Warrios of Kyoshi have one of the longest standing traditions of combat outside of the Bending arts. They have defended this island from pirates, raiders and enemy attacks since Avatar Kyoshi broke the island off from the mainland over three hundred years ago. They have experience in fighting against benders from all four nations and they have managed to keep the Da-Li off their island for the same amount of time," Xander explained simply before gripping the young man's shoulder "I can teach you the basics of fighting against benders, but they can teach you the skills and arts needed to make you effective. They are Warriors, male or female is secondary to that."

After a moment of consideration, Sokka finally turned back towards the village where the warriors were practicing. "So, you think I should ask them to train me?"

Shrugging his shoulders despite being behind the young man, Xander smiled. "No, I think you should beg them to teach you and then listen to them when they do and maybe listen to me when I tell you not to assume things." Xander turned away, "But it's entirely up to you." I'm going to go check on Katara, her Waterbending still needs some work."

He started to walk away, but stopped and didn't bother to turn around to say, "And if you don't ask them, I'm gonna have Appa sit on your head until you get a clue."

Walking away again, Xander smiled as Sokka finally got over his male pride and went to get help.

*Scene Break*

Three days. It had been three days since they landed on this island and Xander's patience was wearing thin. The people hated him, Aang's ego was reaching epic proportions and Katara was capable of creating steam just by looking at Aang and his fangirls.

Worst of all was the sneaky suspicion that he was being followed. Aang had recently gone down to the water, possibly to ride the Koi again and Katara had eventually decided to follow.

Rounding a corner, Xander softened the ground as he walked past and waited. After a few moments there was a rather distinct slurping sound as his paranoia was proven accurate.

Using his Earthbending to launch himself over the small hut his pursuer was using to keep out of sight, Xander landed gently as the man struggled to free himself from the mud.

"Hello General, it's good to see you again."

Looking up, Iroh smiled disarmingly at the young man that had once again managed to surprise him. "Much the same to you, Xander," he said with a smile before dropping the act as it failed to convince the young man. With a burst of heat the mud hardened enough for him to get out before flaking off his clothes as he dried them.

"Prince Zuko will be here soon. He seems to think the Avatar is here, yet some of my… Friends say this is just a diversion. Which do you think it is?" Iroh asked as the younger man shrugged.

"I don't know about the Avatar, it's just me and Aang along with the Water Tribe kids," Xander said honestly as he tried to sell the cover story to the older warrior.

Stroking his beard in thought, Iroh considered the options. He could tell the boy was being truthful, but something about the coincidence seemed off to him. If he was still leading an army he would be on the lookout for ambushes and feints right about now.

"So, are we fighting each other to the bitter end in an epic clash of warrior titans while our subordinates struggle against one another for victory?" Xander asked in an effort to distract because it looked like the older man was working through the lie.

Looking up at the question, Iroh considered it for a moment before shrugging. "Eh, either that or we can find a nice seat, drink some tea and maybe place a wager on who wins"

"Suckers bet General, Do you really think Prince Zuko can take Aang on right now?" Xander said with a smile as the General laughed.

"Not particularly, but I always had a bit of a soft spot for the underdog." Iroh's smile was wide as the two cautiously moved towards the Tea House. The next half hour was spent talking over a game of Pai Sho as they debated tactics and strategies between themselves. Iroh was surprised to find that Xander had a keen mind for small unit tactics and logistics, but held only a basic strength in the greater strategy fields.

Looking up as the fires started in the distance, Xander sighed they would have time for maybe one more game before things heated up too much. Iroh was definitely a great mind, he actually reminded Xander of monk Gyatso in many ways. Even his love of Pai Sho was similar. Smiling at the memory of the old man, Xander decided to play his favorite move, dropping the white lotus into the center of the board he waited for the General to make his move.

The remainder of the game would prove very interesting for at least one of the players involved.

*Scene Break*

Several hours later Iroh sat in the wheelhouse of the small destroyer and thought about his recent game. The boy was definitely of interest and he knew the recognition gambit, but it _could_ have just been blind luck. That still happened from time to time, right?

His years as a General had taught him otherwise. In peacetime, luck and chance were options, but never in war.

"All war is deception," he said softly to himself before looking back at the game board before him. One of the great warriors of the past had said that and Iroh had honestly believed it. He had used deception and sleight of hand on an epic scale while moving his army into place for the siege of Ba Sing Se.

Moving his tile onto the board, Iroh went back to his game. Deception. Were they hiding the Avatar or were they hiding the fact that they were hiding the Avatar. Just because everything is a lie does not mean it is ever simple.

*Scene Break*

(A/N) This was a filler Episode with some character introduction thrown in, I tried to make it interesting but… let me know how I did.


	6. Oh Me, Ohmashu

Standing in front of his little brother, Xander crouched in horse stance as he prepared for battle.

In a rush, the diminutive Airbender was airborne as he tried to close the distance between the two of them.

Taking a half step back, Xander pulled his fist back and up tight and formed a wall to intercept the boy. Unlike most Earthbender walls though, Xander allowed his to be made of smaller particles that Aang impacted and sunk into slightly before he firmed up their density and jerked it back to Earth taking Aang's staff with it.

Blinking at the missing opponent, he'd been trying to capture Aang with that quicksand maneuver, not his staff, Xander made a snap decision and dove to the side as a funnel of air ripped through his abandoned position from behind. Rolling across the ground Xander brought a half sphere of dirt up around him as a second attack struck the earth barrier and glanced off.

Rolling back to his feet, Xander stomped forward and formed a small, but effective maze. He took a moment to throw a ceiling onto the maze cutting off Aang before he shoved the half sphere in the direction of his brother and made a subtle shift to the Earth bending energy. In moments the rusty brown earth had taken on a yellow hue and turned itself into a nearly complete sphere with a slice of it missing. This new opponent then proceeded to chase Aang around the battleground using the missing section of its mass as a mouth and making a very distinct 'Wokka, Wokka, Wokka' sound. Had anyone from his old world been watching, Xander had no doubt he would be sued for steal… er Commandeering the Packman design for his battle. All the same it seemed to be effective in his little battle with the Avatar.

After several minutes of running and screaming, lots of screaming as Aang was chased around the small maze, Xander finally let the maze drop and smirked at the exhausted Avatar that lay gasping for breath in the center. Xander helped Aang back to Appa for a rest before sneaking off to collapse himself. That had been exhausting.

Aang's continued pushing of himself was almost completely due to his inability to beat Xander, and Xander refused to show how hard it was to constantly defeat the young Avatar.

*Scene Break*

Walking down the wooded path, Xander frowned as he approached the turn. Sending a slight pulse ahead of him, Xander shook his head at the squawk as Soka was buried under a small pile of rubble. Stepping around the corner, Xander squatted in front of the kid and shook his head sadly, "Now, what did you do wrong?"

Struggling out of the dirt, Sokka dusted himself off angrily before glaring at his teacher. "Nothing, it was the perfect spot," He grumbled before slumping down to sit on the dirt that had recently buried him.

Sitting down nearby, Xander nodded as he let a grin develop on his face. "Exactly. Anyone that looks at that spot will automatically see that it is a perfect ambush point," Xander explained before shrugging. "Be happy that it's me teaching you these tricks. Most times it's learned through pain and bloodshed," he said before patting the boy on the shoulder and standing up. "Now we need to get you kitted out. Blue and white are great for the arctic and Antarctic, but you stand out a little bit around these parts. While we are doing that I will tell you about a man named Carlos."

*Scene Break*

Facing Katara, Xander smiled as she progressed in both her Steambending and the strength training exercises he had thought up. The girl absorbed teachings like a sponge, a rather comical simile considering her bending strength, but an apt one all the same.

Pointing to the pot of Ice over the small fire, Xander tried to explain things to the knowledge hungry teen, "All right, Katara, there are three basic elements of all things; solid, liquid and gas. You can see water go through these phases here, it starts off as a solid, you can stand on it, hold it, shape it, these are the attributes of a solid. It is why so many Waterbenders use ice when they are fighting, it has a solid weight to it." He explained before moving on to the water that had melted.

"Next is liquid, fluid and changing. You don't change the shape of water, water changes to shape itself. It flows. This is the basic element that Waterbenders use for everyday use, it adapts to anything set before it. Pour water into a square cup and the water is square, pour it into a round bowl and it becomes round, this is one of the greatest strengths of water. It can seep into any crack and grind down mountains through rivers, the flow is where all the Waterbenders' power comes from." He paused to let that sink in before moving on to the final and the most complicated point.

"Finally is the gas. When water heats up it becomes steam. Now this is where a lot of Waterbenders become confused, they believe the only way to control the evaporated water is to condense it back into liquid," He said before nodding at her frown. "I've seen you create steam and I've seen you pull water from the clouds, but the cloud is already water and if you can move the cloud while it is still steam the question then becomes whether you are Waterbending, or Airbending." Xander grinned as Katara got a faraway look in her eyes as she considered the implications.

"That is a point for another time, for now I want you to work on the pot here. I want you to watch the change from each form while keeping the steam inside the pot. Don't let it escape and tell me what happens, all right?" he asked and nodded at her affirmative response. "Now for an added level of difficulty, I want you to stay at least twenty feet away from the pot," He explained before cutting off her response. "I know you can't see into the pot from that distance, it's one of the reasons I'm doing it. You are becoming far too dependant on your eyes and if you keep it up I may have to blindfold you for a week or so to teach you better" Xander let that threat sink in before leaving Katara to her task.

In all honesty, he was likely going to blindfold her for a time anyway because the ability to continue to be a threat in darkness was too valuable to pass up.

Sokka was also one that he would likely train in limited or no light situations. He would like to train Aang in it as well, but his brother would likely just have fun blundering into things.

For a moment, Xander had the mental image of himself charging after a blind Aang in a comical rendition of the Mindy and Buttons cartoons from his old world before forcing the thought out of his head.

He would just have to give Aang the idea and hope he didn't need it until he was older and wiser enough to understand the training. Looking up, Xander blinked as his brother raced through the camp on the back of a Badgerseal before disappearing into the woods once more. After careful consideration, Xander decided to wait until he was older, at least.

*Scene Break*

Dipping under the attempted blow from the club, Xander blocked the boy's follow-up knee strike before shoving the younger man as hard as he could, throwing him off balance and launching a series of strikes to his center of mass, putting him out of the conflict painfully.

Dropping down beside him, Xander massaged his leg gently as the compressed dirt shell he kept on his body crumbled away from where Sokka had managed a surprise hit with his war club at the start of the fight. "What did we learn today?" Xander asked as the young warrior groaned in pain from his position on the ground. "That's right, never assume your target is unarmed or not wearing armor."

Forcing himself to sit up, Sokka glared at the older man that was teaching him before letting out a sigh. "But I didn't isee/i any armor." He argued before dodging a swipe at his head from Xander.

"And that should be your first clue. A wise man once said, 'All war is Deception' and I can tell you honestly that that has never been more true," Xander said before chuckling at the confused look Sokka had while trying to figure that particular comment out. "Let me explain. Imagine that you have a hundred warriors under your command. Now you know your enemy is just over a rise, but you don't know the numbers, so late at night you creep over the hill and look. It's dark so you can't see the numbers, but you can make out more than a hundred camp fires down in the valley. You can assume, from your own men's actions that there are about five men to a fire. So, what do you do?"

Not surprisingly, Sokka took very little time to respond and wisely choose to flee under cover of darkness.

"That's exactly the point. Now in this scenario it could very well be several hundred to a thousand soldiers waiting to face you, on the other hand it could be fifty men keeping two fires going to throw you off and force you to retreat," Xander explained and finally saw the light dawn in Sokka's eyes as he figured out the trick. "You need to hide your strengths just as much as you need to hide your weaknesses, all lright?" Xander smiled as the young man nodded before standing up and stretching. "Well that's about enough for today. Aang wants to head into Omashu tomorrow, we need to pick up some supplies, and as a bonus we can get some training in on urban combat and evasion drills."

The long suffering moan brought a new smile to Xander's face.

*Scene Break*

Walking over the rise, Xander smiled down at the fortress city of Omashu. Tuning out Aang's running commentary, Xander thought back to the last time he had been here. A young Earthbender had summoned him for the last right of master among the Brotherhood. Terra had been one of the few competent Glass Benders and had wanted to earn her place as a master. She had been required to show the facets of her craft to three masters before she could be acknowledged. Her attacks had sent a storm of razor sharp glass shards into her target, shredding the mannequin and leaving no doubt as to the effectiveness of her skills.

Her defense skills had been a bit more difficult for her to master, the Earthbending focus she had been raised with had made her keep trying to throw glass in front of the assaults, to limited degrees of success. It wasn't until Master Vallance suggested several things that Terra had opted for a more subtle defense by using a perfect reflective surface. She managed to defend against all attacks by both cloaking herself from view and displaying images in another area.

She had failed in the field of healing, a required attempt had not added anything to the skill sets, but Xander had wanted every master to at least attempt a non-combat specialty before they earned their masters. Finally, Terra had come to the arts section of her craft and in this she had not only mastered, but excelled. In three days, Terra had formed the 'Star of Terra' a refraction crystal like no other, it took the light that entered it from any or all sides and reflected it out through a single point of focus, the sight had been dazzling and Xander had willingly given his recommendation for her acceptance as a Master.

He had been somewhat worried about the results of a Lightbender using the star, but thankfully had little need for concern as the Star had been donated to the King of Ba Sing Sa soon after.

His musings of the past were finally drawn back to the present as Katara brought up Aang possibly being discovered and the group wondering how they would get into the fortress city undetected.

*Scene Break*

Standing in front of the guards with a bored expression, Xander tried not to let his mounting agitation show as the suspicious and somewhat petty guards continue to interrogate him on the who, what, when, where, how, and why of his travels as he looked over the paperwork Xander had handed him.

Finally having enough, Xander glared at the man for a moment before responding, "Alright you got me. It's exactly like you thought, I am a covert Fire Nation spy that decided to sneak into the city with three kids, a monkey and a ten ton, six legged, large WHITE Bison," Xander snarled before throwing his hands up in exasperation. "Great Gravy people don't any of you read the freaking monthly memos? The Ministry of Education has started an Exchange program with the Water Tribes, it doesn't look like the war will be ending anytime soon and we don't want to alienate our one ally, so we got several kids from their tribe to come over here and I get the joy of walking them all around the Earthkingdom and get yelled at by guards at every single city because THEY didn't read the damn memo!" Xander ranted before spinning on the trio.

"Alright, I am sorry for the inconvenience, but it doesn't look like Omashu will be on your tour. Lets head back to Ba Sing Sa and explain to the minister that…" his tirade was cut off as the guard frantically tried to back pedal from the possible international incident he had just caused and quickly allowed them entrance to the city after stamping the documents to show they had been admitted.

Taking the papers back, Xander glared at the soldier as he folded up the papers and replaced them in his belt before turning and striding into the city, once the party was inside the three massive stone doors ground to a close as the younger kids stared at the city covered mountain in awe, finally Katara turned to him with a frown.

"How did you manage to forge documents like that so quickly?" she asked suspiciously as Xander turned to smile at her with the same infectious grin he always had when he managed a rather dirty trick.

"Remember me telling you about the 'Brotherhood' and how I helped with opening up new and interesting bending techniques?" he asked and continued at her nod, "Well, one of the fastest ways to get between cities, towns and nations without fuss is to offer either free training or free medical aid. So I got a letter of accreditation from the Ministry of Education that allows me to travel with up to four apprentices and travel anywhere in the earth kingdom without issue." Xander explained before shrugging, "Technically I am allowed to travel in any of the four nations under diplomatic flag, but with the war and the loss of the Air Nomads, I expect that only the Earth Kingdom and possibly the Water Tribes would acknowledge it."

Staring at him in shock, Katara finally shook herself and managed to find her voice. "B-But that was a HUNDRED years ago" she argued as Xander simply shrugged and adjusted his pack again.

"Yessss, and thankfully the Earth kingdom is a Bureaucracy, which means that the paperwork is valid until either you die or the proper forms are filled out to redact them. As I have never done anything to have them redacted and I am still quiet alive, the paperwork is still both legal and binding," He explained before heading up the main street into the city to find a room. While the young ones wanted to get done with the city and head straight for the North Pole, Xander had decided to stock up and spend at least one night in a real bed before they continued.

Besides, he wanted to be at least well rested when Aang pulled whatever insanity the boy had planned when he had first insisted they come here.

*Scene Break*

Smirking as he collapsed into bed, Xander thought back on the wild hunt through the back alleys of Omashu he had just finished. The panicked running as the three fled from his Packman O'Doom he had set loose on them had lifted his spirits considerably. Xander relaxed for the first time since his last visit to Omashu over a hundred years ago.

Letting out a deep sigh of contentment, Xander opened up the ancient tome of knowledge he had purloined from the southern air temple as he allowed himself to relax. He was only mildly surprised when one of the mail carts destroyed the wall of his room with his three troublemakers screaming in the back before blowing out the far wall and disappearing into the city rooftops.

Slowly taking another deep breath of the now dust filled air, Xander got over the urge to scream before getting back to his feet. He quickly packed up his few possessions and gently rewrapped the book in cloth before he packed it away and headed out. He briefly stopped off at the front desk to leave a complaint about a draft before heading into the city after his wards.

Behind him, Xander heard the horrified shriek as the owner discovered the cause of the draft.

Using Earthbending to launch himself up to the rooftops, Xander landed lightly near the path of destruction that he had no doubt his little brother had caused. Rolling his eyes at his brother's antics, Xander pulled several earthen roofing tiles to himself and quickly shifted them into the long, familiar skateboard shape he had once been proficient at before jumping aboard. His bending abilities kept the 'hover board' several inches off the shattered rooftop he stood on before he launched himself along the trail of chaos his brother had left behind.

Skipping over the broken roofs and through shattered rooms, Xander rushed through the city before popping up onto one of the mail slides and rocketing downwards in hot pursuit of the trio. Adding several more tiles to the board as he wobbled, Xander finally managed to get his balance as the board reached the approximate size of a small surfboard before he added a pulse of speed to his already mad rush downward.

Crouching low, Xander rocked left and right as he blasted past the mail boxes before skipping over the edge and dropping towards the ground far below. Looking down, he noticed a half dozen green clad Earth kingdom guards escorting his friends into custody with a rather irate cabbage merchant ranting about their heads.

Using his bending to slow his descent, Xander dropped lightly to the streets below and allowed the surf board to collapse back into the rather common cobblestone it had once been. Taking a moment to scout the area, he rolled his eyes in exasperation before heading back towards the inn, he needed to pick up Appa and then request an audience with the king.

*Scene Break*

It was about an hour and a half later that Xander rode the sedate Appa up to the main gates of the king's palace, a sprawling mansion type building that always seemed to be under renovation.

Stopping before the rather nervous guards, Xander cleared his throat before looking down at them, "Alexander Harris, under the authority of the Ministry of Education, seeks a grievance from the king in the matter of his wards." After making that formal announcement, he waited for a response.

The guards all just stood there, none moving, mouths hanging open in surprise.

Xander leaned down and said, "That means that you need to tell him I'm here."

After a moment's pause, one of the guards finally figured out what was happening and in true military fashion fled to get a superior officer. All in all, Xander would repeat his little statement to three guards, two sergeants, a captain, an administrator, three Boards of Enquiry, nine administrative assistants and one janitor. In all honesty, the janitor was a knee jerk reaction to a question. Xander was sort of running on auto-pilot by that point.

Shaking his head to clear the fuzz that had grown over the last four hours of bureaucratic hoop jumping, Xander resisted the urge to feed the next political weenie that got in his way to Appa. Glaring at the man that was currently sitting pompously behind his desk, Xander let out a near silent growl, "Now look, I understand that you want to make sure everything is taken care of correctly, but right now you are holding three underage kids without their guardian, two of them are the direct line of power in the Southern water tribe and one is…"

"The Avatar."

Feeling his spine stiffen at that particular statement, Xander made a mental note to beat Aang about the head and shoulders until the young Airbender understood the principles of hiding. Turning towards his interrupter, Xander glared at the obviously ancient man for several seconds before frowning. There was a rather familiar light in the offset eyes of the old man, a small glint of madness hidden far better than it used to be, but still. "Bumi?" he questioned before chuckling at the long familiar chuckle/snort the self proclaimed 'Mad Genius' of Omashu had always had.

Stepping forward, Xander shook his head in wonder as the hundred and ten year old man cackled at being discovered. "A hundred years and I still can't escape the headaches you always seem to cause," Xander said with humor before hugging the aged man gently and then pulling away. "We saw the Air Temples. What happened?"

Immediately quite a bit of the humor the old man had faded away before he rallied his strange sense of humor again and turned to lead Xander towards the throne room. "The Air Temples were the first attacked, the Fire nation snuck hundreds and thousands of soldiers into the countryside around the temples, they kept them spread out for two days flight around the temples themselves. Any Airbender that fled on their bisons would either be shot down or they would wait for them to land and then ambush them as they rested, Shozin placed a thousand dinar bounty on any Airbender captured. Many fled to the great dragons for protection, and Shozin started a campaign of Grand Dragon Hunts to roust them from their hides. He also would 'spare' villages and towns that were willing to give up the Airbenders hiding within, and even though the villagers would refuse the Air Nomads themselves would surrender to keep the town from being destroyed." He explained as they walked along the long corridors.

Following behind, Xander reached out to grab Bumi's shoulder and turn the older man to face him. "Your dodging Bumi. You've told me a lot of what the Firenation did, but what happened to the Airbenders. I counted less than a dozen bodies at the Air Temple and nowhere near enough damage," Xander growled before pressing. "I would bet Appa's weight in tea that the entire thing was a ruse."

Looking him in the eye, Bumi was once again surprised at the insight his fellow Earthbender was capable of before shrugging, "You're not the first to make that connection. Several others have gone in search of answers, myself included and only a few ever returned. Mostly with tales of beasts in the wild places of the world and wilder memories trapped in the dark recesses of their minds," Bumi warned seriously before turning back towards the throne room. "A hundred years I searched for them, after the fall of the temples. I brought together a few Airbenders behind the walls here, to protect them and one night they were just… gone.

"For a time I thought the Da-Li were responsible, but after 'talking' to several over the next few weeks I realized they didn't have the ability to sneak them out from under me. The Airbenders were either taken by someone else, or they left," The aged king said before looking back at him seriously. "And I've spent the last eighty years searching for who might have taken them," he said before getting a rather odd frown on his face. "And all I could come up with was some rather odd rumors of a 'Brotherhood' or something," He announced before walking away from a gobsmacked Xander.

*Scene Break*

Staring down at Aang as he fought his way through the trials, Xander thought back on Bumi's parting words earlier and what it meant to him personally. The 'Brotherhood' remained. Had it grown, atrophied, had it been corrupted or become complacent in the century since he last was a part of it, or had it taken on a more sinister focus like the Da-Li? There was just no way to know.

Shaking his head at this new complication, Xander turned and headed back towards his room. He knew Bumi well enough to not worry about Katara and Sokka, and Aang was more than capable of handling himself.

Lying down on the bed, Xander considered his options. Aang and Katara needed training and Sokka wouldn't leave Katara, but Xander needed to know more about the organization he had created. He was considering sending the younger ones North toward the water tribe alone as he searched for clues. He hated even considering it, but he just had to know.

Sitting up, Xander pulled the ancient book from his pack and gently opened it across his kneess, turning through the pages he sought knowledge from a wise man long dead.

*Scene Break*

Three days later, Xander was running Sokka and Katara through their paces. Sokka was running through an obstacle course with a small bell attached to his clothes. Any sound either from him, the course or the bell would send the young man back to the beginning. "You don't have an army Sokka, you can't afford to be heard, the first time an enemy should know you are there is when you strike and then only if you are careless," Xander said before sending the gasping boy back to the start, he had shown Bumi the plans for teaching the young man a slightly tougher version of Parkour. Turning, Xander shook his head as the hundred plus year old mad man leapt from a roof top and cannonballed down. It seemed the old man preferred the more flashy free running, mentally Xander made a mental note to leave town before it was discovered ihe/i was the cause of the king breaking his neck.

Looking over at Katara, Xander smiled as she shifted the small column of steam back and forth in a waving dance as she struggled to keep the unfamiliar element in position. "It's not a liquid Katara, it's a gas, the two react differently." Xander resisted the urge to chuckle when his shout caused her to lose her focus and the stream escaped. "Do it again. You need to keep your focus. If you can't focus when I yell to you than you can't focus when a Firebender swings a sword at your melon," he emphasized his words with a light thump to her skull.

Turning, Xander frowned as Aang continued to 'meditate' just in front of Appa. Rolling his eyes at the light snoring sound coming from his little brother, he walked over to his pack and withdrew a small pinch of pepper from the cooking supplies. He used a small stone bowl to float it over to the sleeping Appa and lightly sprinkled the pepper over the large beast's nose. In seconds, Aang's wakeup call came in the explosive sneeze from his sky bison that covered him in snot and spit. Smiling, Xander walked over and patted Appa on the nose as he apologized for the pepper before turning towards his brother. "Aah, Aang, since you're up now I guess you can Join Sokka in the obstacle course," Xander said before tossing a heavy stone to the young boy. "And to keep your bending from giving you an unfair advantage you get to hold on to this."

Blinking away the confusion from the sudden rude awakening, Aang looked up at his smiling brother and groaned at the bleak future of work that he was likely to find himself in. Struggling to rise with the massive stone, Aang wondered again if this was really for his own good or if it was simply a punishment for causing his big brother trouble. It seemed that every time he had some fun that got out of hand, Xander made him work out.

As the light faded over Omashu, Xander kept watch over his charges as he tried to prepare them for the time he would have to leave.


	7. Prison Part 1

Dropping down from the walls height, Xander scurried across the courtyard unseen as the guards watched for invaders from without. Reaching the main building and jumping up, he grabbed the ledge and pulled himself up. The silent whisper of clothes scraping the surface sounding far louder to him than it actually was in the silence of the dark night. Looking down along the length of the building where the green and brown clad form was leaning against the shadows of the small balcony and forcing himself back under control, Xander was impressed at how well Sokka was doing at the moment and after a short pause nodded before diving through the window.

Scurrying through the building, Xander blessed his time in Sunnydale as a noisy demon hunter usually ended up as a dead demon hunter, a situation that he was personally opposed to as the case may be.

Drifting between two patrolling guards, Xander slid into a shadowed corner and froze as another guard made his way past. Slipping out into the hallway, he listened for a moment to make sure Sokka hadn't run into any trouble before disappearing deeper into the massive Fire Nation building. Bumi had reported that the Fire Nation kept a journal of the hunt for the Airbenders in their forward command base, a massive structure near the coast controlled by Admiral Zhao. Thankfully, he had been able to keep the situation from Aang as the young man would have attacked the building head on. He loved his brother, but the little snot was going to get himself killed if he kept up the, 'I Am the Avatar' crap.

Slipping the lock free on a door, Xander swung inside with a knife at the ready and froze. It seemed to be the personal chambers of the Admiral had been 'commandeered' since they had first scouted the building. The new occupant was definitely more feminine than Zhao had been last he saw him, unless of course the admiral was in the habit of dressing up in women's clothes to sleep. Not that he would hold that against the man, it just made the whole assassin in the night thing just a bit more disturbing.

Moving over to the bed, Xander shifted the curtains slightly to make sure of his target when the screaming she-devil came up out of the bed with a knife and a fistful of fire. Dropping under the attack , he brought his knee up in a strike that unbalanced the woman before dancing backward. He was surprised at how quickly the little psycho managed to recover before she was on him again, darting back to the door, Xander batted away an attack and shoved the dark haired female back before spinning and kicking the bolt latch closed. If he was lucky the metal door would keep her reinforcements from breaking through before he could extract himself from the situation.

A sudden spike of pain in his side brought him back to the issue at hand, primarily the insane little slayer wannabe nutjob that was currently trying to skewer him with a knife.

Spinning away from the nasty pokey that she was using, Xander ducked under the follow up swing before locking her arm and shoving her into the wall. For the first time, he managed to get a good look at his opponent and froze in shock. The Dawn clone took advantage of his distraction to slam a slim knee into his crotch and shift to stab the blade between his ribs. Thankfully, Xander had learned a long time ago to keep protection where he needed it, so while the reinforced earth managed to be deflect the initial strike Xander still felt the sharp spike as the blade pierced through his armor again. Grabbing the small teen by the arms, Xander twisted and launched her across the room and groaned as she landed against the wall before leaping at him again, this time leading with a volley of flames. Spinning away, Xander hissed a curse as the guards finally started to bang on the door while the yelling from deeper in the fortress warned him that Sokka wasn't doing much better.

Landing a solid kick against the girl, Xander groaned internally as she bounced right back into the fight. It was like fighting a Slayer version of his favorite munchkin. Slipping into Gyatso's fighting skills, Xander slapped the screaming girl's arms away before landing a kick on her right knee. Twisting her arm up behind her, he shoved her to the ground, twisting slightly so she landed on the already stressed shoulder and popped it out of socket. Throwing his left foot out, Xander pinned the mad little thing's hand to the floor, finally getting a spare moment to consider the situation.

The original idea had been to get the hunting journal and if possible drop the admiral as he slept to keep some of the heat off of both the Earth kingdom and Aang before Xander broke off to find the brotherhood.

Crouching so the angry little monster's legs couldn't pluck him off her and continue her little disassembly process on his person, Xander finally focused on her face, this time more clearly. While she was remarkably similar to Dawn, the eyes were the real difference. Xander had seen eyes like that only once before, set in the face of the mad seer Drusilla.

Increasing the pressure on the girl's wrist, he forced the small dagger towards her throat. Throughout the struggle, Xander didn't see a single flicker of the fear most would expect from such a life and death situation. as the tip of the blade pressed against her neck, he realized he had a decision to make. The Fire Nation guards would be through the door soon enough, but he couldn't let this wild animal up, because even with her injuries Xander was sure she would press the attack should he give her half a chance.

Finally making a choice, he leaned down and planted a kiss on the girl's mouth before smirking at her from under his war paint "Got to run, Princess," he whispered before jerking the blade out of her hand and rushing for the stained glass window.

Diving out the window, Xander felt a smile tug on his face as the girl's scream echoed through the fortress. While he plummeted toward the ground, he was shocked as a crackling blast of blue lightning arced past his head, scorching his hair slightly and sending him tumbling away from the attack. Grabbing hold of one of the slender pillars, Xander used momentum to drag him around it and out of the line of fire just before a second blast took a rather nasty chunk out of the support structure. He was peppered with shards of stone that he would have to pick out later, but otherwise unscathed.

Using his contact with the stone to slow his descent Xander landed and transitioned into a roll before coming out of it on his feet. Looking around. he smiled at the dozen Fire Nation soldiers staring at him in shock as he had tumbled right into their barracks while they were half in their armor. Not allowing the glorified jack booted thugs a chance, Xander dove into the fight. He had learned long ago that general sparring with humans was dangerous as he tended to break bones far too easily.

Landing a shattering blow against the first soldier, Xander felt several of the man's ribs crack and shatter under the impact before he followed up with a heavy blow to the man's jaw that twisted the chewing portion of the man's face off into an odd angle before the soldier collapsed.

Twisting around, the founding Scoobie brought his foot down into a heavy kick that locked and then snapped the second guard's knee, sending him to the ground with a scream. Shifting back several feet as the rest rushed him, Xander smiled as another form joined him. The swinging war club of his apprentice had been modified enough that it couldn't be tracked back to the Water Tribe, yet still maintained the same feel and focus of the original.

As Sokka helped him clean out the remainder of the guards, Xander flashed a thumbs up signal and accepted the young man's nod. He had succeeded in finding the hunting journal and was ready to go.

Turning, Xander saw the mad brunette storm out of the building before zeroing in on him like a missile so, grabbing the shorter man by the collar, Xander tore off for the wall. Fortunately it was considerably easier to reach the top from the inside as opposed to the out. Leaping over the edge, Xander and Sokka disappeared into the darkness as the army base came alive like a kicked over ant hill.

Having made it a sufficient distance to avoid pursuers, Xander finally let his injuries catch up to him. Leaning against a treehe breathed heavily as he held his side. The psycho had managed two good strikes that had penetrated his armor on each side, the small blade had thankfully been stopped before it penetrated too far, but it had pierced a bit and he was definitely having trouble breathing. Xander desperately hoped that she hadn't punctured a lung as the medical field was less than stellar at this point in the world's development.

Grabbing a hold of Sokka for support, they limped back towards camp to explain things to Aang and Katara.

In the fortress a raging princess was throwing fire and lightning about at any that dared approach her. Ranting that that green demon had broken into her royal chambers, assaulted her, beaten her, almost killed her and finally mocked her before fleeing her vengeance.

She wanted him dead! Lashing out at another guard that made the mistake of being within view of her, Azula stomped back to her room in a rage. storming into her now shattered quarters Azula glared at the two old crones that her father had given to her as advisors.

"This is a night of great wonders, Lo," Li said with dark humor as they twins took in their charge with some concern. "Two warriors unknown challenged the very might of the Fire Nation, and then escaped to tell about it," Li said as she bent down to carefully right a candle holder and return it to its place atop a dresser.

Nodding at her sister, Lo continued. "Indeed, yet we are old indeed Li, for all I see no earth or water damage, the winds are still and all fires are from our own," Lo said before looking at her twin. "But we are old Li, perhaps we did not see them."

Returning to her sister's side, Li nodded. "That must be it sister. Surely no non-benders could pose a threat to the Fire Nation and all its glory," She explained before nodding to the silently fuming princess and turning to leave.

As the duo made it out the door, they shuffled towards their quarters deep in thought. Fire Lord Ozai had placed the twins in positions of advisors many years ago to watch and help his daughter develop, but also as an insurance policy in case her mad schemes turned towards the Fire Lord's own position. As Assassins of the Empire, the twins were capable of removing the princess should she become a threat to her father.

Entering their room, the two closed the door before checking the room for possible listening holes before acting. swaying back in forth, the duo manipulated the wind currents to keep their voices from carrying before straitening up, "It would appear Sister, that our savior is at hand," Li said as their third sister stepped out of the shadows and smiled. The identical triplets were some of the most deeply buried Airbenders to ever infiltrate the Fire Nation, with two always being together as the third reported, they managed to throw off even the most dedicated investigations.

"Go Sister La, tell the monks that our time is at hand, the Brotherhood is rising"

With a nod the third disappeared into the darkness as the two forced themselves to slump back into their disguises, it was likely things were about to get very interesting.

Leaning against the side of the massive sky bison, Xander forced himself to remain still as he healed. The injuries were minor, but would prove to be very damaging should he move about too much. This led to him taking on a greater role of teacher as he continued to peruse Monk Gyatso's book as well as the hunting journal Sokka had managed to pick up in the fortress. The young man had also made sure to steal a half dozen other things in an attempt to throw the Fire Nation off their trail before he had escaped.

Taking a deep breath, Xander looked at the kneeling young man in front of him. "At rest and in action. According to Monk Gyatso, these are the two forms of energy for all things. Something is either moving, or not. It is either attacking or defending. To do both is to invite disaster." Xander explained as he adjusted himself slightly to a more comfortable position. "But he later explains that true peace comes from a perfect balance of the two. Attack and defend, stand and move, in all actions a perfect balance. He believed that two people were ten times more effective when fighting as one, one as a bender and one not. Today you and Katara will be practicing, then you will each pair off with Aang to practice for an hour while the off man meditates." Xander sighed at the glare he got. "And off woman meditates," he growled before nodding at them to continue "Sokka and I discovered that most benders are trained to perfectly counter another bender, they are good at it, but someone without that skill is something they are not prepared for and we need that advantage. "

Katara and Sokak squared off with each other as Aang sat on the large sky bison's head and watched.

Several hours later, the exhausted teens were thoughtfully chewing on the meal Xander had had the forethought to buy at Omashu. While not the tastiest meal, the exhaustion and pain were great motivators against searching for something else, even Momo was tired as the monkey creature had spent the vast majority of the time hopping about after a cricket hopper in the grass.

After a deep sigh, Katara finally forced herself to her feet. "I need a wash before sleep tonight," she declared before heading for the river.

Turning towards the exhausted Lemur, Xander glared at the semi-domestic animal. "Go with her, get us if there is trouble," He ordered and grinned as the small creature bounded after the Waterbender.

Leaning back against the large bison, Xander let himself relax for a moment. The moment was shattered as a massive boom echoed through the forest in the direction Katara had just headed.

The next moment Xander found himself running through the woods next to Aang and Sokka as the young water tribe youth wondered at the oddness of running 'towards' loud noises in the night.

Rounding a corner, Xander spied the half dressed Katara hiding behind a tree. Sliding up behind the tree himself, he checked that she was safe before pulling the two other teens behind the dead old growth shrubbery.

Peeking over the fallen tree, Xander rolled his eyes as a young Earthbender was busy shifting stones around in the river bed below.

"An earthbender! Lets go meet him," Katara gushed before two stone fists jumped out of the earth and dragged Katara and Aang shoulder deep into the ground.

"How about we 'Not' startle the nearvous teen with the power to get the earth to eat us," Xander said with a glare at the two.

"What, no stone fist for me" Sokka said with a grin as his sister glared at him from ground level.

Snorting Xander checked on the Earthbender before dropping back down, "You're paranoid Sokka. You're more likely to either recommend running away or hitting him and then running away," Xander explained.

For a moment it looked like Sokka would argue before finally nodding in agreement.

"All right, we want to meet this kid so we are going to do it right," Xander said before turning to Sokka, "Go downriver about a hundred yards and circle back up, keep hidden until after we make our appearance and handle it if he gets aggressive."

Watching the young Water Tribesman move downstream silently, Xander was surprised how quiet the young man had become over the few short months of work.

Dragging his two wards out of the ground, Xander let them brush the dirt off before Sokka made his appearance. Stepping out, Xander kicked a rock so that it splashed into the river so the boy wouldn't feel himself under attack. Flanked by the Avatar and the Waterbender, Xander stepped out with a smile.

He wasn't surprised when the kid got a scared look before dropping his rock and running off. Xander was mildly surprised when the kid managed to create a stone wall to block their following him before disappearing into the woods though.

Turning back to the duo, Xander shrugged. "Guess he didn't want to talk," He announced before Sokka came bounding back into view.

"He ran south, no change in direction at all so there is probably something out there," The water tribe warrior announced.

Nodding at that, Xander turned and braced himself against the tree to keep the pain to a minimum. "Yeah, back in our time there was a little coal mining village out here. I made a few passes, but nobody had the spirit or mindset," Xander said before drifting off as the teens looked at him curiously. "I was a looking for members for the Brotherhood and… to be honest the village was a little set in their nice little mindsets and had no desire to learn anything new." Xander explained before forcing himself off the tree. "Either way they probably have some food and somewhere to sleep for tonight."

He was also hoping for some good painkillers and some medical assistance, but perhaps that was a bit too much to hope for. At the moment he would settle for alcohol and a dry bed.

Stepping into town, Xander frowned at a slight glint of red further down the street before Katara dragged him towards one of the buildings. Pushing the door open and bracing himself against the building at the sudden movement before glancing into the house and rolling his eyes, the kid from the river was inside and it was obvious by the look on his face that he wasn't happy about being tracked down. Giving a tug on Katara's arm, Xander tried to convince her to stop only to sigh as she completely spilled the beans on the kid's recent adventures to his obviously worried mom.

Sending his eyes skyward, Xander wondered if this world had a genetic predisposition that kept them from being able to keep a secret longer than three freaking seconds. His pain was increased as the mother jerked Sokka, Aang and himself into the building and slammed the doors and windows shut so fast Xander wondered at the lack of a sonic boom.

Forcing himself to sit down as the kid pled his innocence in a manner only slightly less believable than a politician or used car salesman declaring honesty, Xander wondered what could possibly happen next. He cursed his pain addled mind for even thinking such a thing as a heavy fist pounded on the door insistently.

Ignoring the oxymoron of, 'act natural,' Xander opted to simply sit at the table and relax as several Fire Nation thugs bullied their way in and proceeded to shake down money from the poor family within.

After resisting the urge to simply blast the thugs into the stratosphere, Xander opted to quietly drop a couple coins onto the table as Sokka and the others pressed the poor woman for details on the Fire Nation's current occupation, for all it was worth. Xander personally couldn't care less, but he knew without a shadow of a doubt that either Aang or Katara would end up either picking some sort of fight or jumping right into a 'save the world' situation without thinking it through.

For a moment, Xander considered thumping the two over the head and dragging them off into the night before casting the idea aside. He was far too injured to get both of them onto Appa, even with Sokka's help.

It looked like it was going to be a long night after all.

Watching Katara and Haru head out for a walk, Xander tossed an apple at Sokka's head before nodding in their direction. Watching the teen's eyes track his sister, Sokka then dropped the remainder of his gathered nuts for MoMo before standing and heading outside after the two. Watching them go, Xander had the sneaking suspicion that bad things were waiting in the wings before grunting in pain and deciding to leave it for another day.

Xander leaned back against Appa and allowed himself to drift off to sleep.


	8. Prison Part 2

"They took him! They took Haru away," Katara said in a panic while Xander let his head drop to the saddle in disgust. Hhe had really wanted to get out of here before the institutionalized idiocy of the younger teens dragged him into even more trouble than they needed. He really was in a lot of pain and the last thing he wanted was to pick a fight with the Fire Nation.

Listening to Katara talk though, Xander made a mental note to at least pay a visit to the ass-hat that had turned the boy in, he had no patience with traitors.

After some debate on the issue, he made the choice to let Katara try her fake Earthbending ploy while he got the whole story out of Haru's mother, and then after a little stop at the traitor's place Xander would get himself captured as well.

He wasn't willing to let Katara go into this alone after all.

*Scene Break*

Standing in front of the Fire Nation soldiers as they patted him down, Xander refused to smirk as the last shingle from the traitor's house collapsed to the ground.

Shifting the earth armor around under his clothes, Xander made sure the searching Fire Nation soldier patting him down didn't find anything before he was shoved into a steel box and dragged off towards the docks.

He really hated this plan, any plan where step one is to get captured is usually a bad plan. In fact, any plan that starts with getting captured had a bad habit of ending with the hero dying in a hail of bullets.

Prisons were designed to NOT be broken out of after all.

*Scene Break*

Standing in the line several people down from Katara, Xander resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the Warden's Boss Godfrey impression. It was hard to take the man seriously without the cool man with no eyes sunglasses.

Watching carefully as the warden 'punished' an inmate for interrupting him, Xander made a mental note of the lax attitude in the guards at the perceived slight. It was a sign that worried him about Katara's plan to join the resistance. If the guards maintained that laidback an attitude during the most dangerous point in the prisoner transfer process then they had probably already succeeded in breaking the spirits of the gathered Earthbenders.

As the Warden finished up his speech, Xander turned away and watched as Haru caught Katara and dragged her over to an older man that was obviously family if the resemblance was anything to go on.

Winding his way towards the small group, Xander made sure the guards weren't placing him in the same category as Katara and Haru.

Moving over to them, Xander managed to catch the tail end of an ongoing conversation as the older man explained that there was no plan for escape, only survival and the declaration of how powerless they were. Taking a step towards her, Xander clamped a hand on the young girl's shoulder and kept her from rising to the challenge. Making sure she wasn't going to bolt, Xander sat down as well.

"Don't, Katara. These people are broken. Words won't convince them to fight today and all it will do is put you in our 'friends' focus," Xander said indicating the warden before shoving some of the slop into his mouth and forcing himself to swallow the vile concoction.

"I won't abandon them," the fiery Water Tribe bender said with a frown as she tried to rise again only to be pulled down again.

Growling at the idiocy of youth, Xander froze the girl with a glare. "These cowards won't fight for you Katara, they won't even fight for themselves," Xander growled before nodding at the prisoners. "Look at them, lost and broken and scared! The Warden beats them down and then pays them off with table scraps and old rags, claiming that they are making him do it. He acts polite when they fawn on him and play nice, but step out of line and he punishes everyone for one person's transgressions. If you stand up there and try to rally them right now you will fail. If you're lucky, the Warden will consider you amusing. If not, he will hurt you, Haru, his dad, me and everyone else you have come into contact with so far." Xander all but growled at having to force the Waterbender to see what she was trying to work with as he ignored the dark glares from Haru's dad.

"W-what can I do?" Katara whispered before motioning to the gathered benders. "What can I do to help them?"

"Convince them to fight for themselves, giving them a hope that someone else will fight for them is a lost cause. That someone is willing to fight 'with' them is of far greater value to a broken spirit," Xander explained before shrugging. "Other than that, the only thing you can do is hope they find their guts again before they sacrifice their children to the Fire Nation."

"How _dare_ you," Tyro grated as he glared at the strange young man that had shown up and had the gall to call him and his people cowards. "We fought! we were outnumbered ten to one and we fought."

"And lost, Xander broke in before waving at the location. "A wise commander once said that to defeat a prepared and dedicated enemy on their own land would require a force of forty to one. They faced you with ten to one and you lost. I believe you were dedicated and fighting on your own land so the only point of failure would be your lack of preparation. This war has been ongoing for a hundred years and YOU WEREN'T PREPARED!" Xander snarled out before waving a hand to cut off the man's denial.

"And then you quit. You were beaten and instead of making the Fire Nation pay for their transgressions you allowed yourselves to be bundled off to this prison where you are good little prisoners and play the Warden's games, bowing and scraping to your conquerors and giving thanks for their trash."

Xander knew the man was likely to attack him. Thankfully that particular fight was interrupted as the captain of the guards marched up with a half dozen Fire Benders and clamped a hand on the form Californian's shoulder. Xander complied with the guard's 'request' for a meeting with the warden.

While he could have fought his way out and possibly gotten both himself and Katara off the platform, Xander had no doubt that the young Waterbender would refuse to go, choosing instead to try and get the Earthbenders to stand up for themselves.

Walking through the metal platform, Xander let his eyes drift slightly closed as he let his other senses bleed out into the area. The movements of bones throughout the prison gave Xander a good idea of what he was facing; a hundred prisoners on the deck with another fifteen or so locked up below, if the painfully specific distances of those bones were any indication, these were being watched over by twenty active duty guards patrolling with an extra forty in different states of rest or relaxation. Call it three shifts of twenty with at least a Captain or Lieutenant in charge and he had a good idea of the shift schedule. If they were smart they would have had four shifts of twenty with a quarter half schedule overlap to keep a greater force on hand and to remove the temptation of attacks happening during the guards shift changes.

But the least he could say about the Fire Nation was that they weren't exactly geniuses. Although they had managed a rather surprising amount of technological advancement in the last hundred years, they had some definite steampunk flavors going on with some of their stuff, but others were decidedly more streamlined than he would expect from an industrial revolution style society.

Coming to a stop, Xander came back to the world as the captain opened the door and escorted Xander into the well appointed room that was quiet obviously the Warden's office as the man sat back in his chair and watched him.

For a moment, Xander wondered what he was doing before coming to the conclusion that the man wanted him to sweat him a little. Unfortunately, Xander had faced vampires, demons and Cordelia Chase already, so there was little chance this man would manage to break him.

Finally deciding he had given the prisoner enough time to worry, Warden Hanzu sat forward and pulled a piece of paper off the desk and looked it over carefully. "Prisoner Feuk Miee, not even an hour at my home and already you are causing trouble for my guests," Warden Hanzu said as he read over the scarce information he had on the young man before him carefully for anything he could use against him.

"Actually sir it's pronounced Fuck Me," Xander explained with a smile and a slight bow before shifting his armor to his lower back to absorb the blow he was sure was coming, flinching at the blow, Xander pretended to be in pain before bowing again, not that the Fire Nation understood the particular significance of the name, their curse words were considerably different than the ones from his own world, but Xander had taken great pleasure in making several names up that would amuse him for some time to come.

Finally nodding, Warden Hanzu set the paper back down and laced his hands together. "Well, Fuck me, it seems you are going to be one of those troublemakers that like to dishonor your host. I believe some time in Solitary shall be of benefit to you"

Inwardly smirking at the words, Xander bowed again. "I'll be sure to take it to heart, Warden," Xander said before the Captain marched him from the room.

Reaching out with his power, Xander locked the Warden's bone structure in his mind before he got too far away. the warden would soon discover the joys of arthritis as only a bone bender could provide.

*Scene Break*

Miles away, the banished General Iroh sat at a desk and carefully looked over the paperwork that his nephew was unwilling to focus on. The young man's obsession with the Avatar and his 'lost' honor that Iroh was beginning to worry if he could ever help the boy get past the anger that was dragging him down a very dark path.

Of all his family, Zuko was the one with the honor and spirit to lead the Fire Nation into a new era of peace. At one time Iroh could have possibly managed it, but his brother's actions combined with his own lack of action had closed that door many years ago.

Rubbing his beard in thought, Iroh noticed another soldier requesting time off several months in advance. While not as odd as it may seem, the recent influx of such requests were beginning to draw his attention. Many thought him to be a tactical and strategic genius beyond compare and it was true that Iroh had long ago learned that logistics were far more important in war. Since that discovery he had focused on the movement and shifting of goods and personnel in both the military and civilian sectors.

This had actually been quite profitable for him as his recent purchases in multiple Tea Houses throughout the Fire Nation was beginning to show real promise for his finances. So much so he was actually almost as wealthy as his brother at this point, just through his knowledge of how things were moving in the Fire Nation.

Recently he had seen a remarkable upswing in the purchases of silk and leather that brought several interesting future issues to light as well.

Shaking the thought off, Iroh approved the leave for the soldier before making a copy of the name and slipping the paper into a secret box that he kept with all the others. In the last month nearly five percent of the crew had requested time off during a particular month early next year, if this sample was copied throughout the empire, Iroh had some worries about a possible revolution being formed.

Making a note to bring it up with his fellow White Lotus members, Iroh went back to his paperwork while listening to the growling curses of his nephew in the other room as he tried to track down where the Airbender and his Allies had disappeared to now.

Really, Zuko was beginning to get quiet obsessed with the young boy. Perhaps he should see about getting some females transferred onboard, maybe that would distract him for a time.

Because heaven knows the boy had no patience for Pi-Sho.

*Scene Break*

Sitting in the dark four by four cell, Xander let his mind wander. He had a link on Katara, the Waterbender was moving from one group of people to the next and it seemed like she was drumming up support for her escape attempt. He didn't use bone sight very often because honestly enough it was complicated, time consuming, and very easy to lose focus on what he was doing thanks to outside distractions such as sights, sounds, random Airbenders throwing pies at his head. It was difficult to find somewhere secluded enough to make the skill worthwhile.

Thankfully, the Warden had given him just such an opportunity. Reaching out, Xander made sure to 'thank' the Warden by crushing the tips of his bones and turning the joint cartilage into a powder with the man's every move before turning back to Katara. Blinking as one of the people she had just been talking to slipped away and headed towards the guards, Xander took a deep centering breath and pushed.

Above him, the fire nation spy screamed as the femur in his right leg shattered in four places before an unseen force ripped him off the deck and sent him plummeting towards the dark ocean below, the sudden influx of bone spikes growing inwards from his skull assured that he would not be alive to hit the water.

Leaning back against the wall, Xander struggled against the backlash of the Broken Core. There was a very good reason he alone had earned the title of Master in that style. While calcium was certainly under the purview of Earthbenders, it had the same difficulty limitations that Bloodbending and Breathbending had. The required power needed to bypass the intrinsic control of the body's own control usually ended up with a rather nasty backlash on those that used it.

Wiping at the warm trickle that was moving down his face, Xander wondered if it was blood, sweat or tears before simply leaning back to rest. Whatever was leaking was of little importance if it would simply stop.

In the darkness of the cell, no one was witness to the blue glow slowly fading from Xander's eyes.

Taking a deep breath, Xander waited for the pain to subside before going back to watching over Katara as she struggled to bring the EarthBenders into her revolt.

After several hours, Xander noticed the massive bones of a sky bison moving alongside the platform before two more forms jumped from Appa to the platform and quickly started to hunt down Katara.

Watching them move through the ocean based prison, Xander decided that it was probably time for him to make his way out. Moving over to the door, he let his armor fall to the floor before forcing the dirt beneath the door. He then reinforced the ground before expanding it and forcing the door open. Stepping out into the hallway, Xander noticed the shocked Fire Nation guard that was stunned immobile with a bite of food halfway to his mouth. Taking a half step forward, Xander shoved his smuggled dirt and sent a football sized chunk of stone crashing into the man's chest dropping him to the ground. Recalling his armor and weapons, Xander started his push towards freedom, opening the doors to the cells and letting out the prisoners the Warden considered to be dangerous.

Forcing the first door open, Xander peeked inside at the older man clad in a tattered green uniform as he lay in the cell uncomfortably. "Hey, I'm going to go play a game of skull cracking against some Fire Nation thugs and I'm looking for volunteers. You want to play?" Xander asked with an insane grin.

After a moment of hesitation, the man cackled slightly before forcing himself to his feet. "Well I must say that I'm a bit out of shape for such a game for long, but I think I'll try to play a round or two," The man said with a smile before shaking himself as a small pile of stones fell out of his clothes to the prison room floor.

Making a mental note to get a hold of this man later on, Xander moved down the hallway, gathering people to fight and leaving those that were unwilling to stand against the guards before moving on. By the end, Xander had fifteen hardcore warriors ready to face off against sixty Fire Nation guards. While outnumbered, Xander was willing to bet that his men were far more dedicated to the fight than the bored, lazy guards that were stuck out here watching over the prisoners.

Between those ready to fight, they had smuggled a small mountain of rocks into the prison, more than enough to lay the smack down on the guards.

Sneaking through the platform, Xander kept an eye out for any Fire Nation soldiers that could be removed from play before the real game started. They were about halfway through the facility when a massive roar of noise took him by surprise. Looking around, Xander blinked before smiling as he figured out what Aang was doing and turning towards the others, he broke the small squad in two before sending one group up to the top to support the other Earthbenders.

Turning back to the others, he considered the mission objective before making a decision "All right, sneaking is out now, so we have a blitzkrieg on our hands. That means we rush the barracks NOW," Xander ordered before taking off in a dead run towards the largest grouping of Fire Nation soldiers. Forming the biggest stone he could while he ran, Xander sent the ball rolling ahead of him, smashing anything and everything that dared to get in his way.

As the stone smashed through the barracks door, Xander shifted the ball into a replica of his packman o' doom and quickly slammed the door shut. After a moment of shocked silence, the screams began as the half awake guards were attacked by a massive mouth chomping down again and again as it chased the panicked guards around the barracks, shrugging off the attacks the guards sent its way.

Bracing against the door as the guards struggled to get out, Xander took a moment to consider whether or not he was evil before deciding that he was at the very least justified in this case.

After a full minute of panicked attacking, Xander allowed the P.O.D. to shatter. The shouts of victory from within made him smirk before reforming remains of the boulder into a half dozen smaller P.O.D.s that proceeded to chase the now frantic Ffirebenders around the room.

On second consideration, maybe he was just a little bit evil.

Looking up as the other Earthbenders arrived, Xander nodded before jerking the door open and going on the offensive.

Tonight the Firebenders would pay.

*Scene Break*

Above them, Warden Hanzu grimaced as his guards moved to suppress the riot that was quickly threatening his prison. Led by the Waterbender and Airbender, the Earth Kingdom fighters were finally revolting. Shifting slightly while he watched his guards be hit from behind by a new influx of Earthbenders from below, Hanzu gasped as even that slight movement sent a shock of pain through his frame. Something during the night had really caused him pain in all his joints. Watching his men fight a losing battle, the Warden came to the conclusion that his off duty guards were most likely not going to show up. Limping towards his safe, Hanzu took a moment to set the documents within on fire before lighting a hidden fuse and moving towards the escape boats. Switching the alarms on, Hanzu let the entire facility know that it would soon be sinking beneath the waves. He was saddened that he didn't have time to retrieve his personal documents, but as hurt as he was, the Warden decided that he needed to move..

Stumbling through the facility, Hanzu was unprepared for the green and grey clad demon to ghost up behind him and knock him out with a modified water tribe war club.

Dragging the older man into his office, Sokka took a moment to put out the fire, looking around before noticing the slight wisp of smoke coming out of a pipe near the floor, Sokka moved over to investigate. Crouching by it, the Water Tribe Warrior sniffed before snorting at the scent of cordite that indicated the Fire Nation's preferred fuse and refusing to panic, he looked around the office before grabbing the Warden's chamber pot and tipped it down the pipe.

Tossing it back over his shoulder, Sokka flinched as the 'tainted' metal pot landed on the unconscious man and splattered the remains of its contents on him. After a moment of consideration, he tipped the container a bit more to assure its contents emptied completely onto the Warden before returning to his hunt. One of the big points Xander had taught him was the need for knowledge when engaging in any military action. So sitting in the big man's chair, Sokka took another look around the mans office as he tried to think like the Fire Nation thug would have. While definitely competent, the man had most likely done something to get sent out here to babysit the Earth Kingdom prisoners like he had.

Tapping the arm of the chair for a moment, Sokka finally started to search the desk before smiling at the small latch he found on the bottom. Shifting said latch aside, the young man smiled as a small compartment opened up, revealing the Warden's stash of gold coins and several pieces of parchment.

Pocketing the gold, Sokka opened up several of the pieces of paper and scanned them quickly for the important parts of the documents. He smirked before slipping the damning papers into his urban gilla suit that Xander had helped him build.

Clearing the room, Sokka moved back over to the downed Warden. Pulling out his club once more, Sokka considered ending the man's life, but after a short time of thinking about it, he finally returned the club to his belt and slipping out of the room.

The night had been spent beating seven kinds of hell out of the old man that was responsible for his sister being arrested. Sokka wasn't exactly proud of what he had done to the old man, but he still held that it was necessary. Xander had destroyed everything the man had owned and left the man's fate in his hands. Sokka had initially wanted to handle it all himself, but after some consideration had joined forces with Haru's mother to enact their revenge.

The young Warrior was still scared by the absolute rage he had seen in the older woman's eyes. She had been neighbors with the traitor for more than a decade, long before the Fire Nation had arrived and his actions had taken her son away. It had taken every ounce of diplomacy Sokka had to keep her from killing the man out of hand.

Slipping through the facility, Sokka searched for his Sensei, moving through the platform and stopping from time to time to try and figure out where the Avatar's big brother could be. Moving towards an intersection, he blinked as a beaten and battered Firebender ran through said intersection screaming with a half dozen small snapping 'packmen o doom' (as Xander called them) chased the poor man down the hallway and out of sight.

Shrugging off the panicked Firebender, Sokka made his way back in the direction the man had come from. The chaos his Sensei Xander was capable of focusing against his opponents was amazing.

Moving down the hallway Sokka continued his search.

*Scene Break*

Aang twisted around the fire blast his opponent sent his way. The fight was definitely beginning to go against the firebenders and so far nobody had been seriously injured. The monks had taught that there was always a better way than war, yet Xander had pointed out that even Monk Gyatso had fought to defend himself.

It was all very confusing for the young Airbender. While he agreed that there was a need to fight, Xander was preparing Sokka and Katara like he wanted them to be soldiers and that was something that scared the young Avatar greatly. Soldiers hurt other people and soldiers got hurt.

Blinking away tears as he managed to spin around behind his opponent, Aang kept his hand on the firebender's back as he tried to focus on the fight at hand; the one major point Xander had thrown out was the number of hurt civilians that had been injured or killed in the war because nobody was willing to stop the Fire Nation.

It had been during one of their training periods that Aang had really seen how much Xander hated the firebenders and especially those of all nations that rolled over and spouted comments of peace while their brothers were being killed. The older boy had then told him about a similar group from his homeworld. Aang had been horrified at the tales of murder and death that Xander had described as he had spoken of the Nazi's and their allies. The Japanese Death Camps and the horrors that were allowed because nobody was willing to stand up against them until it was too late.

Aang knew that peace was the best answer, but the thought of allowing such things to happen just to keep the peace… Xander had explained it as cowardice and gave a definition for it; the sacrifice of others' lives and freedoms so that one did not have to make the hard choices.

He wished he could speak to Monk Gyatso. The older man had always been able to calm his mind, but now he was on his own with only Xander and Appa to remind him of his own time.

Dropping under the firebender's wild swing Aang swept the man's legs out from under him before bringing his flight staff down on the man's neck. Turning back to the fight, Aang watched as an enraged Appa chased a small group of Fire Nation soldiers over the edge of the platform and into the water below.

Looking around, the young Airbender nodded as the last of the fighting came to a close. The injuries seemed to be light and thankfully nobody was dead. Rubbing his hands on the flight staff for comfort in the familiar, Aang made his way over to Appa and MoMo. He knew it was important to help stop the Fire Nation, but the monks had taught him that _each_ life was sacred. The Avatar himself was proof of the reincarnation that was the bases for the circle of life, so for him to take a life would disrupt that cycle and damage not only the dead's cycle, but his own…

And that might very well damage the avatar spirit itself.

*Scene Break*

While he hated the cowardice of the men that had been willing to allow others to sacrifice so they wouldn't have to until they were absolutely forced into fighting, Xander considered the men that were finally willing to fight for their homes and wondered if he ought to throw them overboard after all. He was sitting on the railing, out of the way of Appa as the sky bison paced the new Earth Nation ships and listening as Sokka tried to convince Haru to join them.

Xander smiled at the boy. He was the one true spark of hope that kept Xander from giving up on the people of the townspeople completely. The boy had been willing to fight tooth and nail for his family. Combined with the advanced Earthbenders Xander had found in the prison, Xander was willing to bet that the Fire Nation would have a hard time taking the small village again anytime soon.

He had exchanged information with the fighters that had stood beside him and they had agreed to start a war council to support the fight against the Fire Nation. He had also made sure they would contact King Bumi in the near future to get support from the mad Earth Kingdom bender.

The madness of Bumi would be of great value to the small village should the Fire Nation return.


	9. Spirit World

Sitting on the back of Appa, Xander tried to keep the small party focused. It had been four days already since they committed their grand jailbreak and with the approach of the winter equinox already it looked like their minds were beginning to wander. Watching as Aang dove off the side of the Sky Bison, Xander rolled his eyes as the young Airbender disappeared into the clouds.

Turning to Katara, Xander motioned to the clouds around them, "All right, so you have practiced with steam, water and ice. I want you and Aang to work on cloud shaping," Xander said before looking around for a project for them to focus on and finally smiling. "For today's work you will be making a cloud shape that imitates MoMo. I want it as detailed as possible," Xander explained.

Thinking more and more how Sokka reminded Xander of himself at one point; headstrong, arrogant and more than willing to jump into any fight for his chosen crusade, yet lazy as hell when he wasn't being forced. The boy managed to soak up skills and tactics like a sponge, in a few short weeks he had managed to learn skills and abilities that it had taken Xander months and even years to learn.

as Aang returned to the Sky Bison Xander shook his head at the shivering kid and suggested Katara explain the situation to him before shooing them away.

Sending the two benders up to Appa's head, Xander smirked as the duo started to find the first major problem with cloud shaping, primarily the fact that both Appa and the clouds were moving in directions that were not exactly equal to each other. By the time the two managed to form even the basic shape of the small lemur, the cloud was already far beyond their limit to work with.

Another issue was the small lemur itself refusing to stay put despite Aang's persistent request that the small animal, 'Be still.'

Turning back to the young man, Xander started working on the boy's strikes, focusing the attacks on the weak points in the regular human's body structure before working his way up to the weak points in armor before finally letting the boy's arms rest. Xander cleared an area on the back of Appa and quickly used his Earthbending to form a small scale battlefield. Setting up a camp for his own, Xander gave Sokka control of a small squad of men and spent the next hour covering the true basics of war, logistics, strategy, tactics and deception.

As the day started to drag on, Xander heard Katara gasp from the front. Turning towards the two there, Xander was surprised to see a pretty good replica of MoMo floating in front of the Sky Bison as the two benders looked over Appa's side.

Also looking over the side, the former Sunnydaler blinked at the nasty black section that dominated the forest below.

Slumping, Xander let his head drop to the side of the basket saddle, all but resigned. He was willing to bet that his brother was about to jump into another adventure that would turn his hair grey well before his time.

Feeling the large floating Bison start to descend, Xander groaned before summoning the dirt back to him and beginning to reform his armor. His brother's ability to get into trouble was beginning to reach epic proportions.

Looking over his shoulder at the youngsters that were traveling with him, Xander sighed. "Katara, it looks like a forest fire down there, so let's make sure it doesn't start back up with a bit of rain alright?" Xander asked.

At Katara's declaration that she couldn't, Xander considered bopping her on the skull. "You and Aang push the clouds together over the damage, when it reaches critical mass, you get rain," Xander explained. In short order, the damaged section of the forest was washed with a heavy spring rain and the two benders were quite a bit more tired than they were originally. Xander was hoping that this would keep his brother from becoming too emotional during the next little bit.

Honestly, it was almost to the point Xander worried Aang would grow his hair out, over-gel it and start dressing in all black.

Making a mental note to get his brother smiling again before he ended up with an Angel Lite, Xander felt Appa touch down before the trio jumped off and started to explore the scorched landscape.

Stepping down from the Bison, Xander rubbed MoMo's fur as the small Lemur got a perch on his shoulder while he explored the blasted landscape.

Blinking at the damage, Xander knelt and started to paw around in the dust. One of the big issues he had learned from all the California wildfires was the need for a burn from time to time to help with the continued growth of a forest, yet even then the forests were at least mostly whole, which this was not. The blasted landscape showed the destruction of everything from the old to the young.

Looking up as his brother started to go all emo, Xander listened to him whine for a short time before he rolled his eyes and picked up one of the acorns that littered the ground before slinging it at his brother's skull.

Stomping up to Aang as the small Airbender rubbed his head where the small nut had impacted, Xander plucked the acorn off the ground and held it up for his little brother to see. "The Avatar is a force of Balance, a Guardian yes, but balance all the same. Valleys flood, windstorms blow, earthquakes happen and fires burn," Xander all but growled before dropping the acorn on his brother's head one more, "In all elements the natural force of them is to destroy, but fire brings warmth and comfort, food, clothes and safety. In all ways the element of fire is more caring and destructive than any other, but it is still just an element of change, just like the others."

"Do you see any dead animals? Do you see a Fire Nation emblem? We found some footprints that might indicate that the Fire Nation started it, but since it was actually in the dust the odds are good that they arrived her after it was burned. There is even a very good chance that this was a natural event and if you continue to go all emo on me over this I will personally shove a fish down your sleeping bag tonight and every night, forever after, until you get over it." He snarled before stomping off.

Listening to Katara explain the same thing in a slightly more polite tone, Xander smirked. His brother would have spent several days beating himself up over this until Katara's words broke through if he hadn't beaten the young man up first.

"God, was I ever this bad?" Xander mumbled before blinking at the rapidly approaching form in Earthbender green.

Dropping his head, Xander considered just running away and letting whatever little issue they had be handled in the good old fashioned way before sighing and heading back to Appa for his weapons. He really had a feeling he would need his 'hunting' kit soon.

Stepping off the back of Appa, Xander was proud that Sokka was moving to intercept the old man already while Katara was busy comforting Aang. The boy was still trying to find something to blame himself for, at the moment he was whining about the loss of the eastern rabbit-badger, despite the rabbit badger disappearing three hundred years before Aang was even born and had disappeared due to over predation of their natural enemy the Eastern Badger-Rabbit, as well as complaining about the lack of a teacher for his Avatar mission.

Rolling his eyes at his little brother's drama, Xander moved to confront the older man that was pouring out his problems to the young Water Nation warrior.

Walking up, Xander caught the tail-end of the conversation. The man was talking about the small village's troubles with the forest spirit that was taking people during the night. He was worried about the upcoming winter solstice that was going to allow the spirit world to start to really come through to the physical world and he was looking for anyone that could help them save the village.

Xander blinked at the thought that even here he couldn't escape the supernatural. The village seemed to be haunted by a vengeful spirit that was seeking some kind of punishment for a wrong and while Xander suspected that the forest fire could be at the heart of the issue, he worried about jumping the gun on this and going after the wrong thing.

While he believed he could 'stop' the spirit, Xander was worried about the possible repercussions such action could result in; while dangerous spirits needed to be stopped, Giles had once explained the dangers of exorcising a spirit that was a natural guardian spirit and the result was usually a curse on the land at the least. Sometimes even turning the entire area around it into a wasteland.

Listening as his brother approached, Xander held his hand out to the older man with a grin, "Well sir you seem to be in luck, I'm Scooby Doo and these are my Scooby Gang. Together we travel the land looking for mysteries to solve and problems to set right," Xander said before thumping Aang on the head to interrupt his corrections. "This is Scrappy Doo, Daphney and Shaggy," Xander said before taking the man's hand in a firm handshake before turning away and helping the man lead them towards the village.

(Scene Break)

Many miles away, General Iroh sat in the warm comforting embrace of the hot spring as he let his trouble fade away. Zuko was busy searching for signs of the Airbender and his friends in a desperate attempt to capture them and force the small group to tell them where the Avatar was hiding. Iroh, for his part, was trying to teach the young prince patience and respect. To be honest, the defenses of Ba-Sing-Sa were more capable of bending than the hard-headed prince. Since his last disastrous confrontation with the Airbender, Zuko had become far more dedicated in his fight training, but he still had the habit of charging straight in against his enemies.

Reheating the water in the spring, Iroh let the troubles seep away some more. While the Airbender was definitely interesting, the young Earthbender was far more intriguing. The man was both young and old, the eyes showed a willingness to commit violence that even most Fire Nation soldiers failed to achieve. Leading a small collection of both Water and Airbenders, the Earthbender had not been dressed in Earth Kingdom colors. He had also managed to face Iroh in direct combat and come away unscathed. True, Iroh was not even trying to take the boy down in the arctic, but the boy had managed to bend with earth that was several dozen to hundred feet below them. His defenses had been astonishingly competent for one so young, yet the real telling point of the fight had been the boy's ability to watch over his young friends, disable the ship and still stand against the might of the _Dragon of the West._

Iroh was not an arrogant man, he had a surprisingly honest view of his abilities and failings. That being said, he placed his abilities in the top ten percent of all fighters in the world and could honestly claim to be in the top one percent of all Fire Benders.

He was good and Xander's ability to defend against his probing attacks and still maintain a sense of what was happening around him was a stark declaration of the young man's strengths.

So why hadn't he heard of the young man?

That was the truly troubling issue. While Xander was not a prodigy in Earthbending, he was a good example of what Zuko could achieve should the boy really focus, the ability to adapt and shift the battles to his advantage. In this day and age the Fire Nation should have a dedicated file on hand for the young man with several assassin teams studying him for a weakness so they could take him out should the opportunity arise.

He should be at Omashu or Ba-Sing-Sa facing off against the strength of the Fire Nation in the war, yet the young man was leading a small band of children around the countryside, babysitting them as the youngsters got in trouble.

Iroh had sent a request to the Master of the White Lotus for a search of all records to find out about one Xander, the Earth Rend Legion and anything they might know of a Broken Core and what exactly a Master of such a thing could mean.

So far, only Bumi had responded with a bit of information. The Earth Kingdom Lotus Master had sent a report on the Earth Rend Legion, a hundred years ago it had been a volunteer corps of Earthbenders that had volunteered to work with other nations to support the peace and assist in times of natural disasters. The report had stated that the Legion had been completely wiped out a hundred years ago while facing Fire Lord Sozen at the height of his strength in the Battle of the Eastern Wastes. While Sozen had succeeded in crushing the Legion the Earthbenders' tactics had managed to hold the Fire Lord and his personal guard in place for a week as several of the local villages had been evacuated.

If Xander was being honest of his position in the Legion, the Fire Nation could be facing a well trained and dedicated force that their battles lines were unprepared to go up against.

Iroh's thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of his nephew who was rather irate at the assumed loss of the Airbenders trail. Sinking even lower into the water, Iroh tried to convince the prince to join him and relax, after all the small party was not very good at staying out of the spotlight for long.

Besides, they were still waiting on the scouts report on the forest fire they had managed to put out earlier in the week. Supposedly a lightning strike had started the blaze and the Firebenders had spent several days containing the blaze. While the area within had been burned beyond saving, the Firebenders had managed to keep the rest of the valley from burning up as well.

In all, the last few days had been extremely valuable to the small Fire Nation contingent on board, and the nice little rest at his self-heated spring was letting him really relax and focus on the issue of the vacation requests. He had contacted several old friends back at military command and had received a notice that the average number of time off requests for that month had tripled already. When questioned, most had brought up a new play that the Imperial players were putting together and had promised for that month. Iroh had indeed heard of the new play being put together, he had even considered taking some time off to see it himself. That being said, he was still unconvinced that the entire situation was as simple as that and while the play was definitely interesting, there had never been a five percent request for leave across the military before. After a moment of consideration, Iroh shrugged before sinking back into the water and let his eyes drift shut. His brother had been quiet clear that he was no long responsible for the running of any military units beyond his own.

Letting his mind drift off, Iroh wondered for a moment what their quarry was up to before slipping off to sleep.

It wasn't really important after all.

(Scene Break)

Staring at the small village, Xander rubbed his eyes before checking again. He wasn't wrong, the village was backed right up to the forest with parts of the forest making up the vast majority of the buildings, there seemed to be no disconnect between the forest and the village.

Walking around the small village, Xander became even more concerned about the situation. If this was a nature spirit that was causing the trouble, there was nothing in place that would keep it out. The fact the village embraced the natural environment around it made the village a safe haven for the spirit and the walls and structures held no protection from the spirit's attacks.

Sighing, Xander finally looked around at the scared people that had come to them for help. "All right, we have a couple of choices. It's probably an angered nature spirit that is causing the trouble and the forest fire is the most likely reason for the situation, but let's not get locked into that as the absolute cause." Xander explained before pointing at the forest, "One thing we could do is burn back that edge of the forest so that it creates a distinctive 'break' between it and the village and it makes it harder for the spirit to cross over. Of course it also has a bad habit of pissing the spirits off and with the approach of the equinox I would _not_ recommend it."

Seeing the agreement from the village elders, Xander pressed on. "Another option would be to transplant trees to the burned part of the forest. This is probably the best option, but it will take time and the spirit will continue to attack until it is appeased. We can probably get the trees tomorrow with Appa's help, but that leaves tonight as a potential time of attack that the spirit 'Will' take if given the oppurtunity, so if we decide on this route we will probably need a sacrifice to appease it. If the spirit has to 'hunt' for a sacrifice it will taint the offering and could possibly damage the spirit considerably going into the future."

Taking a deep breath Xander pressed on "The final option would be to destroy the spirit. I don't recommend this option because if it is this Hei-Bai, doing that will damage the land itself. If this isn't a nature guardian though we will probably have to do this anyway, but it is an option of last resort."

Looking at the gathered elders, Xander caught sight of Sokka intercepting Aang before his brother made a comment, "All right, it looks like appeasement is the game of the day so let's be about it. Everyone into the town hall and I will put up some defenses and then we Scoobies will take a turn around the town and see what we can do about keeping Hei-Bai out of the village." Xander stepped forward to shepherd the leaders towards the town hall to keep them out of the way.

Finally convincing the townspeople that everything would be fine, Xander went about carving the mark of the brotherhood into the doors and windows. Using all four symbols of the elements together in one the mark was as close to a holy symbol that this world had, combined with the faith the people of every nation had in the Avatar, the mark was reasonably capable of keeping most spirits out of the areas secured with the mark.

Moving around, Xander made sure to reinforce the symbols by filling them in with a mixture of salt and blood as indicators' of the effort the townsfolk had put into their village, he hoped it would keep the spirit from destroying the town in its rage.

As the final mark was filled, Xander headed back to the trio of arguing teens. Aang was repeatedly stating that as the Avatar it was his responsibility to contact the spirit, to be a bridge between the two and he was responsible for keeping the peace.

Responding with a rap on the young Airbender's head, Xander glared at his little brother who was busy rubbing the pain off his skull. "You are the bridge, fine. But bridges aren't the ones that do things, they just allow people to use the bridge, so if I hear one more Avatar statement out of you I will be running you with Sokka from now on. The Avatars had decades of experience behind them before they were expected to save the world and even then were supported by friends and allies. I won't allow you to pull the drama game and get yourself killed! The avatar does not have to fight alone and I won't LET you fight alone, so get the hell over yourself." Xander growled before turning to the two Water Tribe kids.

"We have an hour before Hei-Bai should show up, so I want _this_," Xander indicated the seal he had come up with, "On every single entrance to this little burg before he gets here. Leave the North open so we can communicate and I will work with Aang on getting in touch with his inner spirit guide."

Xander then tugging Aang off by the scruff of his yellow Airbender suit. The outfit was an ongoing argument between the two as Xander wanted his brother to go a bit more low key, blend in and try not to draw attention to himself, but Aang was adamant about respecting his heritage. To date, Xander had yet to win, but he hadn't given up either.

Walking to the North gate, Xander let Aang go before dropping into a crouch facing the trees. Aang was the Avatar and it was more important that the spirits have access to him rather than facing off against him. He really did respect his brother for his ability to adapt, but an eleven year old was not ready to face the horrors of war. If he was pushed to war, he could very easily become jaded with the facts of life and death.

Watching as Aang sat down in front of him with his legs crossed, Xander nodded. "Just like when you first reached for the Airbending, you will take the same steps. To bend you find the spirit of the energy within yourself and then act on it. In this you will find the spirit of the energy without and draw it to yourself," Xander explained before taking a deep breath to aid his own focus. "Meditate, feel for the energy around you. Feel the whisper of the air as it flows, the rumble of the earth below, the giggle of the water as it glides over the stones and the laughter of fire as it crackles in the hearth," Xander explained what Monk Gyatso had written down before pressing on.

"That is the voice of the spirit realm, a realm of the very elements of all things. Listen to the realm and call out to Hei-Bai, he is near and in pain. We offer comfort and compassion, we offer the return of life and laughter to the forest and we offer the friendship of this village in thanks for Hei-Bai's generosity in allowing us to remain." Xander intoned before watching his brothers reaction carefully. If Hei-Bai had been destroyed by a malevolent spirit, the battle could have very well bled over to the physical world resulting in the burned forest they had seen. If that was true, then Xander was putting his brother in a very dangerous position by inviting the spirit, but it was a position he was willing to take. If he told his brother what he suspected, the spirit would know and they would have lashed out at the Avatar from the spirit world. By inviting the spirit within his brother's body, Xander could face it directly as the Avatar spirit battled it on their terms on the spiritual plane.

For the next hour, Xander had his brother cast his voice into the ether to seek an audience with the spirit that had been attacking the village.

Well after darkness fell, Xander felt the shift in energy as his brother stopped responding before looking up at Xander with eyes a mixture of black and green and let out a deep growl that seemed to echo out of the forest.

Xander's eyes glowed blue for a moment before the image of a _massive_ Panda seemed to hover over his brother's form before fading away.

Nodding at the fact they finally got a response, Xander spread his hands out in a peaceful gesture as he tried to keep the enraged spirit from attacking. "My name is Xander, and I seek an audience with the one within," Xander intoned and refused to react at his brother's feral roar. Thankfully the spirit had not crossed over in its Guardian form or it could have done real damage. Whatever it was, this spirit was powerful.

Taking another deep breath, Xander nodded before trying again. Slicing his hand slightly, Xander let a drop of blood fall to the ground between them and said, "Blood and sacrifice I offer in return for the name of the one within."

It was all about symbolism. The advancements into the spirit world here were far and beyond what his world had managed, yet there was no formal structure to how it all worked. No Shamanism, no Voodoo, no spirit guides in place to keep the peace. The entire system relied on the Avatar, a position that Xander was working to change.

Looking down at the drop of blood, the Spirit within Aang weighed the value before looking back up and answering, "Hei-Bai."

The words creaked and groaned like trees in the wind. Around them the forest responded to the name as the trees swayed in response. Blinking in shock, Xander racked his brain before looking around again. This wasn't what he had been expecting. This thing was ancient, powerful and at the moment very, very, angry.

This wasn't a guardian spirit of the woods, this thing WAS the spirit of the woods.

He had allowed an elemental into the body of the Avatar, "Well, shit," Xander thought wildly as his mind raced to figure out what he could possibly do now.

(Scene Break)

Hei-Bai was angry, the forest fire had been well under control when the Firebenders had arrived. Rather than allowing the fire to flow and cleanse the area they had kept it trapped and without the ability to move through the forest, the fire had consumed everything. The ancient trees that had stood since the first forming of the world been destroyed by the fire, leaving a shattered and damaged path of destruction in its wake and then the benders had just left, leaving the forest spirit to mourn the loss of its children alone.

Watching the memory in the back of his own mind, Aang was surprised to see the Firebenders actually fighting the fire, but in doing so they had destroyed the home of the massive spirit that had rested there for thousands of years.

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions," Aang whispered as he floated within the spirit's mind. It was a saying that Xander was fond of at times, having explained exactly what hell was so that Aang could now see what his brother meant. Stepping towards the spirit, Aang wrapped his arms around the massive beast's neck and hugged it gently as he projected as much comfort as he could to the hurt spirit.

As Xander begged the spirit for peace without, Aang offered comfort within, between the two they might manage to calm the spirit. But it was going to be a long night all the same.

(Scene Break)

Sitting before Xander in his brother's skin, the spirit finally nodded in acceptance of the agreement Xander had brokered between the spirit and himself on behalf of the townspeople. "You have kept me from great harm. What do you want from me?"

Blinking Xander considered that before working up an answer, "I desire nothing but peace, but for that I need War. War with the Fire Nation and all it represents until such time as THEY seek peace. I want you to remove your blessings from them and all they do; no tree to bear fruit and no shade offered, seal the warmth from your body and allow none to burn until peace is restored, the bodies of your children to offer no shelter and the spirits within to offer no peace."

Staring at the boy for a moment, Hei-Bai nodded in acceptance. Very soon, the Fire Nation would find itself in a new type of war. It was very rare for anyone to consider how important simple wood is in everyday life. Shelter and shade, food and comfort are the more common, but the actual impact would quickly start to grow. No fires could be kept going with wood, the flames hissing and sizzling out. The wood that kept the houses together started to swell and warp, making buildings collapse and ships were no longer safe. Shoes and armor became soft and broke.

On his throne in the Fire Kingdom palace, Lord Ozai was embarrassed as his throne collapsed around him.

Blinking from the floor, the mad Fire King was witness to the three thousand year old support beams that had withstood the rage of Fire Lords for ages began to warp and slump before his very eyes. In the following weeks, dozens of engineers and specialists would be called in and punished for failing to resolve the problem.

All told, it would be the first of many troublesome developments the Fire Nation would suffer from in the next few months.

It would not be the last.

(Scene Break)

With a final sigh, the spirit left Aang's body and slowly made his way back into the forest. In the gloom from the new dawn, a dozen villagers stumbled out of the woods and blinked in shock at finding themselves at home before being greeted by their friends and family.

Helping his brother to his feet, Xander groaned as his body complained about the odd position they had been in all night before he headed towards the village elders. It was time to explain the cost of the deal he had struck with Hei-Bai,

Walking back to the townsfolk, Xander motioned for the elders before taking them off to the side, "We have managed to pacify the spirit. It _was_ Hei-Bai and he was willing to make peace with you, but the spirit has several requirements." Xander pushed on before they could say anything, "The trees must be planted, as we agreed yesterday. You also need to become the stewards of the forest and all it contains and once a year Hei-Bai will walk among you. During that time there can be no fires in the village. All burning will cease and be kept out until the day of sorrow is over."

Taking a moment for the elders to understand, Xander pushed towards the last point, "And once per year, for a year, someone needs to walk with Hei-Bai, because he is lonely and needs the company. At the start of the new year, someone from the village will be called out into the forest to spend the year with Hei-Bai and at the end of the year they will be returned, unharmed."

As the elders started to protest Xander made a chopping motion to cut them off. "This is non-negotiable, if anyone wants to live in this valley these are the rules they must abide by. He is willing to listen to your requests again in a hundred years. If you don't like it, Hei-Bai will allow you to leave unharmed, but any attempt to stay without abiding by the rules will be met with destruction. This is how things are, the spirit has a valid complaint and is willing to be somewhat reasonable. So if you don't like the situation, leave."

Letting the situation sink in, Xander tried to ease the blow a little. "We won't fight Hei-Bai and if you do I will tell you now that you WILL LOSE. This is its home. This is where it is most powerful and to face it at this point is dangerous and stupid. Should you concede to the agreement in place, you will have the full protection of Hei-Bai and your village will be safe. Should you break the peace, you will be destroyed." Handing the written form of the agreement to the village elders, Xander walked away, it was all up to them now.

Turning around, the young man made his way back to his small group and took note of the situation. Aang was obviously shaken from his time with the spirit, Katara was comforting him and Sokka was keeping the gathered villagers distracted so they wouldn't comment on the Airbender with the spirit abilities.

Stopping in the middle of the village, Xander shook his fist towards the sky, "AND I WOULD HAVE GOTTEN AWAY WITH IT TOO, IF IT WASN'T FOR YOU ROTTEN KIDS!" he roared before smiling at the obviously confused villagers. "Sorry, it needed to be said." He apologized before turning toward his wards, "Come on Scoobies, let's get back to the mystery machine and head out."

Walking out of the village, Xander was surprised when Aang dropped away from Katara and headed back towards him. "What's up Scrappy?" Xander said with a grin before letting it drop at the overly serious look his brother sported.

"I know how to speak to Roku. I need to go to the Fire Temple before the end of the solstice," Aang explained as Xander let out a deep sigh.

"Let me guess, vision thing right?" Xander questioned before nodding at his brothers affirmative. "You know how I feel about the whole Avatar thing. This 'one person in all the world' crap is not something that I find acceptable because of the lack of support. That being said, I trust you. I trust you with anything but pies, you and pies should not mix, but I trust that you find this important. If we go, then you will most likely be outed as the Avatar and everything I've done to protect you will be for nothing. The nations will come after you with all their might and either kill you or force you into their army. Now I want you to think about this," Xander said before taking a grip on his brother's shoulder. "Is this what the Avatar spirits are demanding of you?"

After a moment of hesitation Aang finally nodded.

Nodding as well, Xander hugged his brother close. "All right then, we will get you to the Fire Temple."

Following the two Water Tribe kids back towards Appa, Xander started going through different scenarios that he could use to protect his brother for just a little longer. Each time he did it though he came back to the same problem, he didn't have enough manpower to face off with the Fire Nation. The only group he knew of that did, was the brotherhood.

The equinox was three days away, plenty of time to get Aang to the temple, but nowhere near enough to gather the brotherhood for an attack. But if he could gather enough…

Stopping by the mail carrier, Xander scribbled out a quick message before sending the bird winging away towards the Earth Kingdom village of Aumhai. The brotherhood had managed a very large population in the village before his little time trip and while he suspected that many had moved on, Xander was hoping for more than a few to still be around.

He was betting his life on it, as a matter of fact.


	10. Parting of Ways

Unbetad.

Da-Dum

Sokka cast his eyes around the moonlit clearing in search of his foe, for the last three hours he had been toyed with by the beast, just managing to catch a glimpse as it lead him on a chase until he was far away from any safety.

Da-Dum…

Hunkering down into a low crouch the green demon prepared to move out of the attack.

Da-Dum, Da-Dum…

Placing a hand on the ground Sokka felt the telltale rumble as his foe approached.

Da-Dum, Da-Dum Da-Dum, Da-Dum Da-Dum, Da-Dum…

Ignoring the noise Sokka finally caught sight of the slight disturbance beneath the light soil, rolling to the side as the massive white shark lept out of the ground the water tribe warrior managed to just barely avoid the gaping tooth filled jaws as the great white shark attacked before it dove back beneath the soil.

Blinking at the massive beast Sokka looked between where the Shark had been and the spear he held before coming to a decision "I'm going to need a bigger spear."

Four hours later as the dawn light finally woke the Avatar from his slumber, Aang was surprised to find Sokka already awake and sitting next to the fire as he discussed something with Xander, while the avatar took note of the small white shark medallion Sokka wore around his neck the young water tribe warrior would never speak of his night facing off against a beast from legend.

Scene Break

As the final earth nation soldier dropped Iroh stood proudly beside his nephew, the young man had successfully managed to track him down and assist in his escape, not that he would have had much trouble but it was nice to see what his young charge had learned in the short time they had been together, he was becoming quiet the formidable opponent, perhaps it was time he started training the young prince in unarmed fighting styles, sometimes it was better to not use your skills in combat after all.

Smiling at his nephew's request that he get clothed Iroh simply enjoyed the feeling of freedom his unclothed state allowed, after all how many people were involved in a life or death struggle while naked.

Scene Break

Sitting in the basket saddle Xander watched as Aang argued with Katara and Sokka about their accompanying him to the fire temple. Yet each and every argument he came up with the duo managed to shoot down. They were surprisingly good at arguing, waiting for Aang to focus on one of them before the other jumped in and threw the small airbender off track, the tactic was surprisingly good and Xander made a mental note to watch out for it the next time he had to argue the two into something.

Laying back in the basket Xander let the sounds of the argument drift away, he had no doubt that the two water tribe kids would join them, by hook or by crook if he had any real bead on the character of the duo, quiet possibly both.

Watching the clouds above Xander thought back to his debate with Hei-Bai, the spirit had proven to be very competent at the debate method and had argued Xander into a corner several times.

Thinking on the spirit and what he had set lose on the fire nation Xander couldn't help but wonder how this might escalate, it worried him more than a little, centuries ago the different nations had agreed to keep the spirit world out of their fights, when Hei-Bai turned his anger against the fire nation they might very well seek help from a spirit themselves, leading the world into a supernatural equivalent of an arms race without the tenuous understanding of M.A.D. that his own world had to keep things calm.

Considering the options Xander decided to turn his attention back to the silently sulking Aang that had obviously lost the fight with the two water tribe kids in his quest to keep them out of the little mad adventure.

Looking over at the stare his brother had on his face Xander let a single eyebrow move up towards his hairline "you even think about it and I swear I will give you such a wedgie that avatars hundreds of years from now will walk funny." Xander threatened before smirking at his brothers look of terror before he leaned back to catch some rest before they made it to Aumhai, he would need his sleep to deal with the brotherhood.

Resting his eyes Xander started to work towards a plan to keep his brother safe, initially he had planned on taking out everyone at the temple and then letting his brother make his run towards his little spirit chat, while he had expected some hesitance from his brother with this plan Xander was working on a better option.

With a little work he could get Katara and Aang to bend behind him and make it appear that he was the avatar, a situation that many in the fire nation would be more capable of believing due to the extended years, that would take the pressure off Aang and let him train in peace while Xander used the brotherhood to face off with the fire nation.

It wasn't a perfect solution, and Xander was hesitant to use a force that he had no experience with in combat against a standing army, but Monk Gyatso's journal had reported a continuation of growth in the brotherhood well after Xander was gone, the monk had anticipated several thousand were active in cells across the nations the vast majority split between the earth kingdom and the fire nation.

The split could very well complicate things should even one of the brotherhood decide that their national pride was greater than their personal oath to the brotherhood, a situation that Xanders soldier memories showed was far more complicated than many understood.

Asking a man to betray his country was always a risky business, and keeping such things secret was beyond complicated, it was one reason the cold war had been as bad as it had been.

Yet even with all those concerns Xander was willing to put his life on the line in an attempt to keep his brother safe, honestly had anyone ever told him that having a sibling would be this much work Xander would have never cursed his status as an only child.

Letting his breathing slow Xander drifted off to sleep as Appa floated on towards the Village.

Scene Break

Iroh looked at the small Fire nation outpost commander that had sent a report that had caught his nephews attention, as Zuko grilled the man for information concerned the great white flying cow he had seen Iroh tried not to interfere, this was his nephews mission and the General wanted him to have a chance to make it on his own before he interfered.

Sighing deeply as Zuko continued to use bluster and threats to try and get his way Iroh finally stepped up and laid a hand on the young princes shoulder, Looking at the young captain that had reported seeing the flying cow Iroh started to heal the damage Zuko had managed to create in such a short amount of time.

After a short times work Iroh had the information they needed, the captain was once more placated and Zuko was silently fuming at being overshadowed by his uncle, worse yet was the fact that he couldn't argue with the results, he could honestly say that his uncle was better at handling people than he was, if he was brutally honest with himself his uncle was better at handling personal interaction than anyone else in his family save his mother.

Heading back to the ship with his uncle Zuko considered the information that the onetime general had gained, the small party they had been tracking was heading south-west, if they continued on the path they had chosen the party would stop at the coast town of Aumhai before continuing into the fire nation, stepping onto the bridge Zuko stared at the map before coming to a decision.

"Captain, make best course for the red line we will intercept the Earthbenders party before they entire my father's lands." Zuko ordered as he pointedly ignored his uncles concerned look, he had spent the last four years searching for information on the Avatar and even his banishment from the fire nation lands would not sway him from finding a way to regain his honor.

As the fire nation ship chugged towards it's destination Zuko felt a thrill as his destiny began to come into focus, he would capture this 'Xander' he would force the location of the Avatar out of him and he would regain his honor before the eyes of his father, to do anything less was unacceptable.

Scene Break

Lo and Li stared at their charge as the small Firebender princess threw a tantrum that once again destroyed everything in the room, in the last three days since the green demon had attack Azula had destroyed two rooms after waking up from particularly intense dreams.

Refusing to smirk at the princess' inability to handle the intense emotions she was having from the young man that had attacked the fire nation fortress Lo and Li simple offered what little consolation the mad princess would allow before moving away to give her space, in her current mindset Azula would likely kill anyone that she thought suspected the true depth of her new emotions.

For the two undercover Airbenders it was an exceptionally amusing turn of events to watch.

"I want him!"

"What? Did you say something princess?" Li questioned and refused to smile at the slight flush Azula had before the girl got herself back under control.

"The Green Demon, I want him found now and brought to me…" The fire bender drifted off before growling "For Punishment," She elaborated angrily before glaring at the two bowing ancients as they made their way out of the damaged chambers, for a moment she considered lashing out at the duo for the subtle snickering she suspected they were concealing before taking a deep breath and forcing a calm back into herself.

Scene Break

Patting Sokka as he dropped off the back of the Sky Bison, Xander took a moment to glance around what had once been a small out of the way village, as Sokka dropped off Appa's back Xander looked at the young warrior pointedly shooting his eyes over at the two others before accepting the young man's nod of understanding.

Leaving his brothers safety to the water tribe warrior Xander made his way towards the small tavern that he remembered from his last visit more than a hundred years ago.

Stepping through the town Xander refused to focus on the changes that had happened over the last century and tried to pick up on why his hellmouth honed senses were screaming at him in the small town.

While it had obviously grown since he was last here and yet something about the town was really bothering him.

Stopping at the final corner Xander froze as he finally picked up on the issue that was concerning him, the town was almost dead, while the houses and buildings were lit up for the evening the population was almost non-existent on the street.

It seemed like the entire town had turned out in front of the tavern with more than a thousand people standing silently in the street as the small space the brotherhood had originally met at was not made for the sheer press of humanity that had shown up.

For a moment Xander stared at the mob and considered running before a thin hand gripped him by the arm, turning to the person holding him Xander blinked, the face looking up at him was ancient, old beyond compare yet still held a slight amount of the beauty it once held, smiling down Xander blinked a tear away as he remembered the person that had managed to catch him, "Hey pretty lady," Xander choked out as Maya smiled up at him, "Sorry it took so long to get back,"

A long time ago Maya had been the one main thing that kept bringing Xander back to Aumhai, he had managed an on again off again relationship with the Earthbender, she had helped him form the Brotherhood, start the different bending skills, she had managed to become proficient in mud bending, a skill that Xander had truly enjoyed watching her practice with as she usually ended up a muddy mess that she still managed to smile through.

The image of a scantily clad mud covered Maya had brought Xander back to the village time after time.

Reaching up Maya wiped a tear away from Xander face before smiling again "No tears for me Xander, I did well for myself." Maya said happily as she thought back to their first meeting, the tom-boyish Maya had been chased away from the village by several bad dogs, and while an accomplished Earthbender Maya had been scared near witless by the snarling monsters that had already killed her mother's prize chicken-cow, leaving the small family without any milk or eggs for the coming year.

Without thinking Maya had rushed away from the animals and subsequently away from the villagers that could have helped her taking off into the woods like a shot.

Running through the underbrush Maya had ignored the cuts and scrapes the tree limbs had put on her flesh as she ran, the chase was like a bad nightmare to the teen, running away from the monster but never escaping, she had forced her way through a river before scrabbling up the far bank as the last of her strength gave out, curling up in a ball as the snarling animals lunged for the kill Maya screamed.

When she had opened her eyes Maya had been surprised to see a young man in Earth kingdom dress but all in grey standing between her and the mangled forms of the bad dogs, blinking at the sudden turn of events Maya had shuddered at the sudden relief at the realization that she was not dead finally sank in.

Throwing herself against her savior Maya had sobbed hysterically, she must have been quite a sight hanging on to the young man while crying frantically about the bad dogs and preferring cats and the multiple stupid reasons that people kept dogs.

She had rambled for some time before finally looking up at her savior and blinking at finding herself back home with him sitting on her bed holding her, she had obviously been babbling for some time.

Scene Break

Coming back to the present Maya smiled again, Xander had weathered the press of time far better than she had all things considered yet she had to wonder at the loneliness he must feel, all his friends gone, all the missed opportunities.

Pulling the young man into a hug Maya refused to cry, Xander had been there for her when she needed him the most, but he had missed so much, her marriage, her Babies were born, the funerals she had endured, all the time she had needed him and now she was to old to be there for him.

Pulling away Maya smiled again before letting him go and moving towards the crowd, she was pretty sure Xander wasn't prepared to confront the full numbers the brotherhood had at Aumhai, over the last century the town had become a resting place for the brotherhoods numbers when they burned out or got to old to continue as such nearly the entire town was made up of brotherhood retirees.

Joining the crowd Maya moved to the front and smiled at the hush that fell over the gathering, as the eldest Bender in the brotherhood she had managed to garner a level of respect that would have been impossible otherwise, stepping up on the small stage Maya took a deep breath to settle herself before continuing "Brothers and sisters, tonight we have a special guest with us, from the golden age before the war, from the time of Airbenders and Avatars I offer you a special guest, My friend and savior, Xander, first of the Brotherhood and Master of the Broken Core."

Turning towards the panicked Earthbender Maya slowly stepped off the platform and smiled "Go get'em Tiger," she whispered jokingly before joining the crowd below.

Stepping up into the stage Xander looked out at the faces and resisted the urge to run away, it was worse than Timmy making him naked in front of the whole class, and as the vast majority of the crowd was benders it was considerably more intimidating.

Mimicing Maya Xander took a deep breath to center himself before starting "Good evening, today I come to you for the first time, many years ago I started a small group of like minded individuals on the path to seek out knowledge in all ways, from science and technology to new bending arts that can help everyone, I saw the rise of this small group of like minded individuals grow to a gathering of many that sought to keep the peace in this world, we wanted to protect those that couldn't protect themselves, in the few years I was with them the brotherhood grew and flourished into a multitude of different bending arts" Xander explain before shaking his head at the multitude before him.

"And then I was pulled away and shoved into some strange version of the matrix, nothing was as I left it. I return and I find me friends have aged, my family died, my home destroyed and my world at war and the porcupines in the artichoke" looking around at the confused glances Xander shrugged "Just checking to see if your all following. yet the small group of like minded individuals had blossomed into the people I see before me, hundreds of men and women working towards a common goal of peace, what I had started so long ago has become a force to be reckoned with." Xander said proudly.

"And now I need to beg your help, my brother needs to go to the Fire temple on crescent island, to achieve this I am asking for the assistance of several benders to help in confusing our enemies, by bending Water, Air and Earth I intend to project to the fire nation that 'I' am the Avatar, to do so I need all the help I can get." Xander explained a simple version of his plan he had pretty much stolen whole hog from Katara's 'Let's get captured' ploy, without the 'Getting Captured' part.

"Anyone that comes with us is likely to be targeted by the fire nation, I don't expect you to just drop everything and charge to war, yet without help my brother will most likely die, I won't allow that to happen, I can't force you, and I can't order you, all I can do is ask. Is anyone willing to help my little brother?"

Taking a step back at the sudden rush of hands Xander blinked in shock as every hand there was raised, the old and injured, the young and weak, all of them were ready, willing and able to march with him to war.

Laughing at his shocked look Maya simply smiled at his look "you gave us each a chance at a family sexy, without you we would all be condemned to a lifetime of mediocre bending, being stepped on by the stronger benders and used as indentured servants by the military." Maya said seriously as the gathered people nodded "For the first time since the four nations were formed we don't have to depend on the strong benders for protection, you gave us freedom, and options and hope, for that we will fight for you." Maya said without any mocking in her voice.

Shaking his head at the absurdity of it all Xander just accepted the help with as much grace as possible, "Alright, we need to get the fighters to crescent island by the equinox, and I need some dedicated benders to come with us on Appa to help me act the part of the Avatar."

As the group split up to start moving to invade the fire nation Xander nodded at the small group of benders that remained, Maya would lead the main attack and these four were the best choices to help him pull off operation 'Substitute Avatar'

Nodding at the four Xander decided that they just might get away without Aang being ousted to the fire nation, but this was really putting pressure on him to split from the main group. "Alright ramblers, let's get to rambling and we will lick these guys like a lollipop" Xander declared before taking in the rather odd looks he was getting from the quartet at his choice of words. "Lets move on"

Scene Break

Thankfully due to Appa's flight ability Xander was able to take a day and learn to work with the Benders as a team, each had joined the brotherhood young and brought several distinct skills to the party. Two were Earth benders, one specializing in lava bending while the other was a Corral bender, and the other two were Water Benders specializing in steam bending and ice refraction.

Together they could disappear and still bend to pull off Xanders miraculous feats of Bending, and with the Fire Nations obsession with the Avatar they would be all to happy to attribute any oddities to a miscommunication or misremembered facts.

In all, it should work. Which was why Xander was currently working on contingency plans to cover the escape in the most probably event it didn't.

Leaving Katara to train with the Steambender Xander had some time to go over the attack in detail, the assembled benders and members of the brotherhood would sneak into the fire nation over the next couple of days and then assemble to attack crescent island in force, Xander Katara, Aang and Sokka would then hit the island with the team of secreted benders, Sokka would stay with Aang at all times to keep him from acting on his stupid impulses before Xander pretended to be the Avatar, in all they would make their way to the Roku shrine and making contact with the past avatar, the group would then split up and disappear back into the night, Xander would make a big show of his anger towards the Fire nation before disappearing with the brotherhood, Aang, Katara and Sokka were to go straight to the water tribe of the north while Xander organized the Brotherhood for war.

It looked like things were going to get very, very complicated for Xander in a very short amount of time.

"Sir, it's time to go."

Looking up at the Lava Bender Xander nodded before heading towards their ride, walking up Xander glared at the big clean Appa before growling, "I thought you were going to camoflough him," Xander said with a glare at Sokka and Katara and Aang sat sulkily on the Sky Bisons skull.

Shrugging his shoulders Sokka indicated the broken buckets that had held the paint they were going to use "Appa disagreed with that concept and I'm not stupid enough to argue with a ten ton flying weapon of 'Mass' destruction."

Taking a moment Xander finally grinned at the pun before getting serious again and turning towards Appa with a glare "Listen Cow, I don't feel like painting a big target on our backs by flying through the night sky in a massive WHITE bovine so get muddy and lets go." Xander ordered and took a step back at the large animals growl, " heres the deal you hamburger reject, either you roll around in the mud right now and you get to wash it all off later or I swear I will shave you bald as Aangs noggin right now and take my chances with the pink." Xander threatened as he ignored Aangs indignant squawk and Sokka's snickers as he stared the big cow down.

At the Sky Bisons glare Xander dug into the packs and pulled out Aangs shaving blade, "The choice is yours big fella, but I can promise you that washing off the mud will be far easier than regrowing all of that fluff."

The two squared off for several more minutes before the grumbling sky bison turned and trundled over towards the mud pit in a huff.

Jumping off Appa's back Aang stormed up to his brother and poked the bigger boy in the chest "Don't you threaten Appa," Aang growled as the large sky bison started to wallow in the mud behind him.

Looking at the small brother Xander Xander shrugged "A wise man once said 'I do the very best I know how - the very best I can; and I mean to keep on doing so until the end.' I can only do my best Aang, and I need Appa to not show up in the night sky to do that, if I have to make him Angry I will, if I have to shave him bald and paint him grey I will and I have to hog tie you and throw you on the back of Appa to get you where you need to go I can promise you that I will do that to, I will make enemies, friends, allies and nemesis' to keep my friends and family safe and threatening Appa is the least of what I am willing to do." Xander explained before getting blinsided by a massive wave of mud.

Picking himself up off the ground Xander turned towards the irritated Sky Bison that had decided to return the mud favor Xander started to chuckle, with all the mud that the large animal had coated himself with his hair was spiking up like a porcupine.

"Alright, I might have deserved that," Xander admitted as he flicked off as much mud as he could from his hands and wiped his face "Alright, mud time is over lets get to flying, we have to meet up with the rest of the fleet today, the temple has to be ours by sun down and then we need to split up, after this the brother hood will be officially moving to a war footing."

Looking the small team over Xander resisted the urge to beat his head against the wall, he really didn't want to bring the younger ones into this, but Aang had to go and Xander had no doubt that Sokka and Katara would insist on going as well.

In all it was less of a headache to simply bring the two and deal with the fall out later.

Climbing up to the back of the Muddy sky bison Xander leaned back and forced himself to get some rest.

It was going to be a long day.

Scene Break

Iroh sighed as he found his nephew exactly where he had left him four hours earlier, scanning the night sky with a telescope in search of the elusive Earth bender party that had information on the Avatar, stepping up to the young prince Iroh shifted back to his Jovial style that worked best at settling his nephews nerves.

"Come to bed young prince, it's late and we have a long day tomarrow and you will need your rest," Iroh said and sighed as the young Fire bender simply continued to scan.

"I know there out here Uncle, I can't let them get past me this time." Zuko said angrily as he scanned through the sky once more, he knew they were coming this way and he would not let them slip through his grasp again, besides how hard was it to spot a large white cow floating through the clear night sky.

Shaking his head Iroh simply turned back to go inside, he knew his nephew would work himself into an early grave if he wasn't careful.

Behind him Zuko focused on a shifting shadow for a moment before dismissing it and continuing to scan the heavens.

Scene Break

Staring over the edge of Appa Sokka hocked a spit wad before letting it drop towards the lights below, while he would probably miss the thought of a Firebender getting hit with a spitwad in the middle of the ocean was of particular amusement to him.

Turning to the adult and mentor Sokka nudged Xanders foot and nodded over the edge "Firebender destroyer below, looks like our 'pretty boy' friend is sniffing around I wouldn't be surprised if the entire fire nation navy is moving to intercept them." Sokka said as Xander looked over the edge and nodded, since their last 'run-in' with the fire nation prince Xander had insisted Sokka research his enemy, he had been shocked that the young scar faced firebender was the crown prince in exile and the scar had been given to him by his own father after questioning a general decision in the war room.

Sokka had actually felt bad for the young man, while he was a Fire Nation and wanted to capture them and possibly torture them Sokka had been considerably more blessed by his parents, growing up under fire lord had not been easy for the young man, and Sokka could see it in his eyes, he was obsessed with proving himself to his father, a situation that Sokka could actually emphasize with all things considered.

Turning towards the horizon Sokka nodded as a line of lights could be made out coming into view, the fire nation knew something was going on and was moving to make the most of it, had the brotherhood left with them they would have had a nightmare of a time getting around them tonight.

Drifting silently across the sky Sokka sighed as his thoughts turned to his father, the water tribe warrior was somewhere out here, fighting against the fire nation, even as small as their village was the Northern Water Tribe was still helping in the war, Sokka could actually understand why Xander became so angry at the different villages that spouted off comments of peace and simply 'Accepting' what the fire nation was doing, the fire nation had come to their home, killed and stolen their loved ones and tried to break the spirit of the water tribe and yet they were still fighting them, for Earth Kingdom villages to cower and hide was enough to disgust Sokka even as he tried to keep his peace.

But Xander was different, he was gathering an army to stop the fire nation, not out of the anger or fear that others did, he could have disappeared into the wilds with Aang and never come into contact with the fire nation again, and yet here he was leading a charge to the fire temple with an objective to bring the fight to the fire nation itself, a task that hadn't happened since the first year of the war a hundred years ago.

Not for glory or honor, not so tales could be told or parades made, he was invading the fire nation solely so his brother could find out what he needed, simply because it was the right thing to do.

That was the type of warrior Sokka wanted to be, but even he could see that he had a long way to go until he got there.

Sitting back in the saddle basket Sokka tried to get some sleep before the coming fight, while he doubted he would be in the thick of it he had noticed Xander and Aang had a habit of getting into some interesting situations.

Scene Break

Dropping low as the sun rose over the horizon Xander looked down at the small fleet that was prepared to invade the fire nation, more than three hundred members of the brotherhood was standing ready to fight for him and his brother, to go to war.

Xander shuddered at that thought, his soldier memories was filled with the true horrors of war and he wondered if the members of the brotherhood were ready for that, one of the things he had learned was that the most effective tactic in a war was in making the civilians lives a living hell, not killing them but destroying the infrastructure of a nation was the fastest way to bring it to it's knee's.

And when they went to war that was exactly what they would do, the fire nation would suffer for their leaders and military, towns would burn, villages flood and the earth itself would turn against them, he would bring the full force of the brotherhood down onto the heads of the Fire Nation and all the nation would bear the brunt of his war.

He refused to let the civilians of the fire nation live in peace when their military destroyed the lives of the other nations, they were just as guilty and would pay just as much, he couldn't bring himself to kill the civilians but he would make them just much a part of this war.

Today would be the first step, the brotherhood would take crescent island, and while the others would flee several of the members would stay to hold the island itself from the fire nation, the fire nation would lose the fire temple, and the brotherhood would take more from them before the year was out.

You don't win a war on a defensive footing.

As the fleet started moving towards the island Xander patted put his mask on and motioned for the others to do the same, to date anonymity had served the brotherhood well and Xander was willing to let that continue for as long as he possibly could, the masks were featureless grey canvas hoods with the quad symbol of the avatar painted on the front, below him the gathered members of the brotherhood made their own preparations for the fight to come.

Leaning forward Xander patted Appa on the forehead "Head straight for the temple, we will go in through the top." He announced before standing up straight and summoning stone boulders to him from the ground below, forcing the stone balls up to his level was a struggle but Xander needed to make an appearance, they reached the temple just as the clerics started their morning service outside the chamber of the fire avatar, shoving the massive stones forward Xander let gravity and inertia take over send the massive stones crashing into the building and shattering through the wall scattering the fire Sages and opening a massive hole in the side of the building for Xander and his team to arrive.

Stepping into the hole Xander glared at the firebenders that went on the offensive, stepping backwards Xander Smiled as Aang reacted creating an air funnel around Xander that capture the fire and sent it back towards the benders with a gesture, hidden behind an ice mirror the clerics were unable to see the team and only made notice of the earthbender that had just managed to bend fire, taking a step back in fear the blinked before Xander made a gesture and flooded the floor washing the fire benders off the floor and flushing them down into the levels below, Xander could already hear the sound of fighting going on down below as the brotherhood made quick work of the fire bender before starting the second part of the invasion.

As half the assault team started clearing the temple the other half went to work bending the ocean floor and creating sharp rock outcroppings far out to see, just under the water level the reinforced this with even more several feet below to make it impossible even during low tide for the massive fire nation battleships to approach without sinking into the waves.

As they finished that particular task up the move back and started to raise the level of the volcanic island, joining forces and lifting the massive island straight up leaving a sheer rock cliff face hundreds of feet straight up for the enemy to overcome before they could even attempt to take the temple, in all the shaking rumbling and grinding pseudo-earthquake did little to help the moral of the fire clerics that had suddenly found themselves under attack for the first time ever, in all with the problems they had recently discovered with the structural supports in the temple as well as the troubles the fire lord had ordered them to fix with his palace, in all the week was rapidly dissolving into a nightmare, the most they could hope for at this point was that they would be killed in battle and thus be spared the trouble of explaining exactly what had happened to the fire lord.

Several blasted their way out and fled towards the docks only to find themselves hundreds of feet higher than the last time they had looked, the imposing sharp rocks of the of the bay below reaching up to greet anyone that might try their luck with a horrible sharp pointy death before getting washed away into the depth of the oceans to feed the scavengers of the deep.

In short order it was over, the clerics and Sages were defeated or dead, with a few taking special care to make sure they were unobserved before striking against the other clerics with a flurry of attacks that dropped the fire benders before shifting away to report to the Brotherhood for further orders. At the top level Xander held his knife to throat of the cleric that was struggling desperitly to talk, after Angel Xander had little patience for the sneaky cryptic crap.

"Now one more time who are you and what do you want, anymore crap and I'll feed you to Appa," Xander threatened as behind him the massive sky bison gave a rumbling growl that seemed to do wonders to loosen the mans tongue, and bowels if the sudden scent was any indicator.

"My name is Shyu, I am a cleric of the fire temple and I can take you to speak to Avatar Roku," the man stuttered as he glanced between the knife wielding man and the massive beast that was likely to eat him in a panicked frenzy.

Adding a pit more pressure to the blade Xander dug the tip into the mans neck to keep his attention "Avatar Roku is dead, how am I going to speak to him?" Xander questioned seriously as Aangs ears perked up at the possible information.

"T-The light, when the light hits the statue of Avatar Roku you can speak with him in the spirit world. The sages have guarded the knowledge and lore of the fire temple for three thousand years, many of us are still loyal to the avatar." Shyu said nervously as he waited for the man to make a decision.

After a short time Xander nodded and removed the blade slightly "Alright then, I'll trust you for the moment, but you will take me there now, any tricks or funny business and I will kill you where you stand and find out what I need on my own."

Shyu was positive the man would make good on his threat, the eyes glaring at him from behind the hood held the promise of death to anyone he considered an enemy.

Scene Break

Walking towards the sanctuary Aang tried not to think about his brothers actions, he knew that people being hurt, getting killed even as they fought over the small spec of land in the middle of the vast ocean, the monks had raised him to respect all life taught him that each person was part of the whole, that to take the life of anyone would weaken the whole and thus hurt themselves.

But Xander had simply smiled at the elders when they tried to teach him this and pointed at one of the sky bisons the healers were working to save after a nasty collision with the mountain ledge had led to a broken leg and ultimately an infection.

"The leg is part of Paypa's whole, to remove the leg would make her less whole, yet the infection is spreading, the part is hurting the whole, you can leave it and let the whole die together, or you can amputate and learn to live with the loss." Xander had explained seriously before bowing to the Air Temple elders and making his way outside to play.

In all he had made a surprising amount of sense, it had created a great stir that had caused many in the temple to voice concerns until Monk Gyatso had stood before the assembled Air Nomads and explained that sacrifices must be made, but only after every possible avenue of cures had been tried.

The complicated part had been trying to figure out when someone else's sacrifice was needed, and when it was your own, the monks were adamant that self sacrifice was the only sacrifice ever to be taken, and Xander insisted that some people were just… better off dead.

It was a troubling concept for the peaceful air nomads to accept.

Coming out of his thoughts Aang blinked as the party stopped before the massive doors that blocked off the Sanctuary from the outside world.

Taking in the intricate system of tubes and pipes Aang had to wonder if the Fire Benders had used the same person that made the Air Nomad Sanctuary for their door.

Scene Break

Zuko blinked in shock as the Fire Navy blockade turned and headed inland at full steam, rubbing his eyes to make sure his exhausted state wasn't playing tricks on him Zuko turned towards the helmsmen and ordered them forward, if the entire navy was moving there was a good chance the Earth Bender and his friends were the ones responsible, and he wouldn't let that pompous windbag Zhao capture the Avatar before him.

Standing at the prow of the ship Zuko made a mental note to get some tea before too long, he had been up all night and he didn't want to face 'Xander' and his friends while completely exhausted.

He would find the avatar, and he would bring him before his father.

His honor was at stake.

Scene Break

Shaking the little man Xander nodded to the door, "Open it," he ordered and sighed as the man started to babble a response that it was impossible,

Shaking his head at the idiocy of the situation Xander shoved the small man towards the four benders that had come with him before walking up to the door itself, looking it over Xander rolled his eyes the system was overly ornate and complicated to conceal the simplicity of the lock itself, a fire bender would force a flame down the central tubes heating up the water within the coils causing an expansion and pressure to the pistons within that unlocked the door itself.

While complicated for a fire bender and all but impossible for an earth or airbender due to the enclosed system the fact remained that it was a water based lock, evidently the fire nation believed it impossible for water benders to get this far into the fire kingdom, after all ten whole miles behind the blockade point was far too deep for any enemy to infiltrate.

Most likely the fire kingdom had never been told 'How' the system worked, which begged the question what the heck were they going to do once the system broke, while remarkably simple it was complicated enough that most were going to destroy it long before the ever figure out how it worked, only Xanders interest in Uncle Rory's side business as a locksmith had helped him in figuring out the system.

Signaling to the Steambender Xander a grand show of waving his arms before the locked door before with a gesture the massive locks opened with a groan before the door slid open slightly before being concealed by a sudden influx of steam from the floor below, in a flash the Xander grabbed Aang by the back of his shirt and slid into the doorway before pulling it closed.

Looking around the small cloister Xander shrugged, the simple room was occupied by the ornate statue of the previous avatar Roku, the man had been a great asset to maintaining the peace of the world, yet had still failed to see the betrayal of his long time friend, the thought of what Shozin had done brought a curse to Xanders mind that he sent out to all traitors, Shozin and Ford being foremost on his list due to their betrayal of friends.

It was actually a bit weird honestly, Xander routinely asked men and women to betray their country yet he didn't have any ill feelings for them as they weren't betraying their friends directly and they weren't doing it for power.

Staring at the man that had been his little brother predecessor Xander felt a small amount of pity for the man, he had trusted a friend and then been betrayed by him, cast from his country and abandoned by his own nation.

In all it was a very sad story that made Xander think about his own friend, Jesse at least had vampirism to blame for becoming a soulless monster, Shozin and Billy Fordham had only their own ambitions for their betrayal.

Sitting in the middle of the sanctuary Xander watched as the small dot of light slowly crawled closer to the gem at the center of the statues head, he had made sure the brotherhood had made sure to keep the actual position of the Sanctuary unchanged as they adapted the island to a more defensible battlefield for the predicted Fire Nation response.

As the light hit the gem the entire room was filled with a blinding light and Xander found himself standing next to little brother as they faced the massive form of Avatar Roku, blinking at the massive form Xander wondered if all the Avatars were massive, if so Xander had a little bit of worry that Aang would outgrow him and spend the last decades of his life beating him up in response for all the ribbing he was giving him now.

Blinking as the Avatars lips started to move Xander finally noticed the semi ethereal forms that the other two had taken since the flash of light.

Waving his hand through Aangs form Xander rolled his eyes as he started to get flashbacks to Halloween as the duo conversed silently Xander took another look around the room before stopping in shock as he caught his reflection in one of the mirrors the fire sages had used to increase the light in the room, this one was different as it held a soldier that he had seen many years ago in the mirror as he prepared for trick or treating, the only difference was the slightly glowing blue eyes that stared back at him in the mirror.

Stepping up to the glass Xander looked the other man over and shook his head, it was a blast from the past that was for sure, "Let me guess, you're my cricket spirit here to put me back on the straight and narrow." Xander asked rhetorically before the image shrugged.

"Actually I've always been here kid, just wanna see when you intend to really get this war heated up," the soldier asked simply as Xander goggled in shock.

"Heated up, I invaded a country with a force I have NO Idea about or any clue how to use" Xander said as he stared at the spirit like it was crazy.

Of course being the spirit he was possessed with over five years and more than a century ago in another world entirely there was a passing fair chance Xander was the crazy one.

"And then you're running away, you expect to fight a guerilla war with this force while hoping Aang gets away and gets his training, in all honesty you're pulling the exact same crap everyone else is… Waiting for the Avatar." The soldier said and ignored Xanders reactionary strike that cracked the mirror, "You want to make them hurt, to win by body count alone, but you saw how effective that was in Nam, these people will value the land so take the damn land and don't ever let it go, make them bleed to hold what they have and when they retreat don't ever give that land up again."

As the soldiers form faded Xander rubbed his fist in thought, he had originally intended to leave a skirmishing force here to make them pay for retaking the island before they retreated away to punish the fire nation again. Yet his own world history had proven that skirmishing forces worked will to keep invaders at bay but not at defeating an established nation in force.

The beat the fire nation he needed to start taking land and keeping it, the brotherhood had to turn itself into an army, and fast or they would be overwhelmed by the established military of the Fire Nation.

Returning to the center of the room Xander took a seat and started to really consider the options he had to take the fight to the fire nation itself.

While he would definitely work to support the guerilla style fighting he had initially started but he had to put a real army together, the Earth kingdom was far too focused on the defensive to support him truly in his war, while Bumi would help Xander couldn't in good consequences request too much help as Omashu was far too valuable to the earth kingdoms continued existence to really consider weakening them excessively.

After a short time the odd glow surrounding the room faded leaving Aang back among the world of the living.

Looking at the glowing eyed airbender with the overshadow of avatar Roku hovering over his brothers form, Xander smiled as the sounds of battle started to fade in through the building walls, the fire nations response had arrived, "Ready to go?" he asked and smirked at the look his possessed little brother gave him, it looked like Roku was going to work out some unresolved issues with his former national brothers.

Stepping away from the door Xander smiled as the possessed avatar shoved the door open and stepped outside.

Scene Break

Zuko was shocked, standing on the deck of his flag ship he stared at the destruction before him, cruisers and battleships were damaged and sinking in the crescent bay as fire benders struggled through the water to the beach, on arriving they began the chaotic scramble up hundreds of feet of sheer rock face that had not been there before as they fought against the assembled force that was arrayed against them.

Staring at the battlefield Zuko began to feel sick as he watched the soldiers fall from the cliff face and plummet to the ground below as rocks and water attacks were mixed with arrows from the top.

The heavy battleships were forced to keep a distance that kept the massive firepower potential they offered from coming into play in support of the ground forces leaving the soldiers to their own devices as they fought for their lives.

"Not good,"

Turning to his uncle Zuko frowned as the old general watched the battlefield with the eye of experience that Zuko lacked, turning back to the battle Zuko frowned as he realized that he had no chance to get through this to capture the Earthbenders. "Is there anything they can do?" he questioned as his uncle stroked his beard in thought.

Watching the battle carefully Iroh pointed at the arms reaching out to sea "A team moved to the arms could assemble one of the heavy cannons to support the ground units, armored plates from the damaged ships could be used to off cover the beach front and offer a battle point for the units to engage from while navy teams open a path for the ships to offer close support." Iroh explained before shrugging "But most likely Zhao will order one or two of his battleships to force their way through and beach themselves before firing on the cliff face." Iroh explained just before two of the heavy battleships turned into the bay and started to accelerate "

Watching the ships Zuko considered for a moment before deciding that it was likely a decision he would have made in Zhao's place without his uncles advice, thankfully being removed from the chain of command gave him a chance to observe the situation and really think about the issue "But, they have prepared for everything we have done so far, they must have expected…" his statement was cut off as a mist started to rise off the oceans surface and quickly observed the battle from view. Soon after the deep thudding sound of the battle ships heavy guns opened up as they fired blind.

Turning to the grim face of his uncle Zuko understood exactly what that meant for the hundreds of men stationed on the ships and fighting on the beach "They are lost aren't they?" he questioned before looking back at the fading sound of the fire fight "The ships, the men…"

"Now you understand why I'm so tired Zuko, three hundred days of this was more than enough for me." The retired general explained before turning away "Zhao is a fool, he may take the island but his loses will assure that this will never be a victory," he growled before walking back into the ship, he knew how this would end, and he was pretty sure the fire nations opponent was sure of the ending as well.

He was tired of fighting, tired of war and tired of writing letters to parents proud that their children had been sacrificed to the mighty fire nation war machine.

He cursed his grandfather for starting the war, his father for continuing the war, his brother for pushing the other nations into bringing the war to them and his self for not stopping it years ago.

Stepping into his cabin Iroh took a moment to try and calm himself before moving over to the small shrine he had made to his son.

Kneeling in front of the shrine Iroh tried to block out the sounds of battle that was seeping in through the walls of the small destroyer.

"Leaves from the vine, Falling so slow, Like fragile, tiny shells, Drifting in the foam, Little soldier boy, Come marching home, Brave soldier boy, Comes marching home."

As he sang the song Iroh refused to hide the tears that were in memory of a fallen soldier that he was so very familiar with that had fallen before the walls of Ba Sing Sa many years before.

Stepping away from the doorway Zuko turned and walked back to the bridge, stopping Zuko looked at the captain before giving the order he thought he would never issue "Turn us away captain, there's nothing here for us but pain."

As the captain issued the orders Zuko stepped out on deck and watched the last views of war, the mist had lifted and revealed the shattered remains of the two battleships broken on the beach as the few survivors struggled to survive against the prepared enemy defenses.

As the small destroyer turned away Zuko began to wonder what his country would be like if that level of destruction was ever brought to his own home.

It was a thought that would keep him up for many nights to come.

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Stepping out into the evening sun Xander stared out at the battle with the eyes of a soldier, the heavy ships were being held at bay and the smaller units were being destroyed ad hoc as they made land fall, yet even then the fire nation would be capable of blockading the island until the landing forces were moved up from the main land to take the island back.

Turning to the glowing Aang Xander motioned towards the massive ships further out to sea, "if you're willing I would ask that you send them away." Xander said as the avatar nodded solemnly.

Taking a step forward the avatar 'pushed' sending a wave of water and air bending towards the ships, as the ocean itself turned against the massive vessels the admiral made the decision to take the remainder of his fleet away from the threat that was destroying him more decisively than any other battle in fire nation history.

Watching the fleet retreat Xander had to come to a decision, he could hold the island and use it as a staging point, or sink the island and demoralize the enemy.

Looking down at the assembled Brotherhood Xander came to a decision, "Sink the Island, scatter to the winds, meet back up at Gaoling at the seasons end." He ordered and watched as the those that could hear him ran to pass the message on to those that could not, turning to his own little group Xander stared at the three sadely "I have to go with them," he said before waving away the arguments "I have too, the fire nation will soon think I am the Avatar, they wil search for me and the best way to protect you is to be as far away from you as I can." He explained before dropping down in front of Aang.

"You need to go to the Northern Water tribe Aang, learn to be the Avatar, if you are ready by seasons end meet us in Gaoling and I will help you find an Earthbender to teach you, we may even have some firebenders by then that could help out." Xander said before pulling him into a hug "Be safe squirt, and don't forget to get some fuzz therapy every now and then, if I find you have gone all emo on me I will personally have Appa sit on you until you get over it." Xander threatened before letting him go.

Moving on to Sokka Xander laid a hand on the young mans shoulder "Keep an eye on them, I am depending on you to be the guardian of the Avatar, not boss, not brother, and not thug," he explained as he locked eyes with the Sokka and made sure to impress the seriousness on the young man, "you are a warrior now, you represent yourself, your family, your tribe and.." Trailing off Xander handed Sokka a small emblem with the brotherhoods crest "You represent the brotherhood, Remember what I taught you, and remember what you learned from others, when you get to the north pole find someone to continue your training. " Xander said seriously before taking a step back and saluting the young man and held until the shocked young man returned the salute.

Turned to Kitara, Xander ignored her blush as he pulled her into a hug "Take care of him, Aang needs a voice of reason and he listens to you," he whispered before smiling "And ignore Sokka when he finds out you like Aang," he whispered before kissing the young waterbender on the head and grunted as she landed a solid blow to his gut for the teasing "Seriously Kitara, he doesn't need a mother, he needs a friend and ally, you are both. Don't let that change and he will see how important you are, eventually."

Stepping back Xander looked at the small group and shook his head, three kids, a monkey and a flying cow were going off on their own to learn how to save the world. For a moment Xander felt a deep bite of despair before shaking the feeling off, they were as ready as they could be for this.

Several minutes later Xander was onboard one of the boats as they sailed away from the sinking island, the only item saved from the doomed island was the statue of the late Avatar Roku.

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(A/N) I hope you all enjoyed and give me bright shiny reviews, I do not own the Jaws Theme or any other items found within

This was written back in November for the NanoWriMo challenge, it has been sitting for more than a half a year now, I had originally intended to continue this through the other 'Books' showing an escalation of war that never really felt right in the series as well as the evolution of the different characters widely divergent from the originals thanks to Xander's interference.

Unfortunately due to ongoing issues with time, energy, school, work and a rather serious back injury due to a car wreck as well as some issues with my Beta Reader that is not going to be possible.

For the time being at least, here ends the Big Brother Storyline, thanks for reading and I hope you all enjoyed.

Thanks Duchess for beings such a great Beta.


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